Holiday Help: Support a Patient Family

Screenshot holiday help

How can you help spread happiness, hope, and kindness to patient families during the holiday season? Glad you asked. 

You can help patient families during the upcoming holiday season through our Holiday Help program, formerly known as Holiday Benevolence. Groups of staff, departments and clinics can participate in Holiday Help by sponsoring a family and providing gifts or gift cards. Families complete a wish list to help provide guidance for staff sponsors as they go shopping for gifts.

The Holiday Help Herd (Cook Children's chaplains and social workers) matches staff sponsors who sign up on the Google Doc with families referred to by Social Work/Case Management. 

Here's how it works:

Support a patient family through gifts:
• Confirm your department/unit/clinic wants to sponsor a patient family. 

• Once confirmed, select a point-person from your team to complete the Holiday Help Sponsor Sign-Up form no later than Wednesday, Nov. 8. 

• The Holiday Help Herd will update staff sponsors of their matched patient families beginning on Friday, Nov. 10. 

• Sponsoring staff should complete gift purchases no later than Monday, Dec. 11 to ensure patient families have picked up their gifts by Monday, Dec. 18. 

Provide Wal-Mart gift cards (or money to buy them):
• Gift cards help families to purchase food, gas, kitchen appliances, and, of course, TOYS! 

• To help honor our culturally and religiously diverse patient population, please purchase basic blue gift cards. 

Help fulfill the Child Life Wish List:
• Items from this list benefit patients throughout the year as birthday presents, means of encouragement, prizes, and holiday gifts. 

• The Child Life Wish List is attached here under Downloads. 
 

Your Questions Answered

My team has always sponsored a patient family and have never gone through Holiday Help. Why should we start now?

• It fosters equity among our patient families.
• It promotes and helps maintain professional boundaries.
• It allows us to best steward our resources.
• We are asking nicely ;)

  Is it possible for my team to sponsor a patient family to which we are connected?

• Yes! After your social worker determines if the patient family qualifies for Holiday Help, add this phrase to the last question on the sponsor sign-up form: “We want to sponsor the patient family identified by (insert name of social worker).”
• Do NOT include PHI. Social Work places the PHI in a secure location, closing the communication loop.

Last year, we had to drive hours to deliver gifts! How can we avoid that this year?

• As patient families are referred to Social Work, social work establishes the expectation that families must be able to meet the sponsors within 20 miles of or at Cook Children’s Medical Center to pick-up gifts.
• Examples of Exceptions:  A family lives in Abilene and a clinic in Abilene is willing and able to sponsor that particular patient family; a family lives in Lubbock and a clinic in Lubbock is willing and able to sponsor that patient family; a family lives in Prosper and a unit from Cook Children’s Medical Center-Prosper is willing and able to sponsor that patient family, etc.

 I want my children to experience the joy of giving. Can I sign-up my family as sponsors?

• No. Sponsorship opportunities are only available to groups of staff people, not individuals or people related to staff. Consider purchasing basic blue Wal-Mart gift cards to contribute to Holiday Help or items from the Child Life Wish List (find the list at the top right of this page under Downloads).

No one on my team wants to sponsor a patient family with me. Can I just sponsor a family myself?

• No. Sponsorship opportunities are only available to groups of staff people, not individuals or people related to staff. The Holiday Help Herd can help connect you with other staff groups who are sponsoring, or consider purchasing basic blue Wal-Mart gift cards to contribute to Holiday Help or items from the Child Life Wish List.

My team signed up to sponsor a patient family, but we changed our mind. Can you, please, take us off the list?

•  It depends. If your removal request occurs before November 8, we can remove your team. After November 9, we can only remove requests if there is another staff group willing and able to provide for the patient family who was matched with your team. 
   

Which patient families benefit from gift cards?

• Families who consist of three or fewer people.
• Families who need a little extra help during the season of Holiday Help.
• Families who live outside our service area.
• Families who cannot meet a sponsor within 20 miles of or at Cook Children’s Medical Center [ Fort Worth, Prosper or both] to pick-up gifts.
• Families who are not receiving others means through Holiday Help.

Who requests gift cards for patient families?

• Social workers notify Spiritual Care when gift cards are needed for patient families.
• If you are aware of a patient family that might benefit from gift cards, alert the social worker assigned to your unit/department.

What happens to the ”extra” gift cards after Holiday Help ends?

• Any gift card that remains after the Holiday Help season ends are reallocated to the general benevolence fund and are used to support patient families throughout the rest of the ye

If you still have some questions or need clarification, please reach out to the Holiday Help Herd by emailing HolidayHelp@cookchildrens.org.