CEDARCREST INC
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Mission Statement
Cedarcrest Center is a specialized pediatric medical facility providing intensive nursing care, special education and comprehensive therapy services for children with complex medical and developmental needs. We are New Hampshire's primary resource for post-acute care for children with high-risk medical diagnoses. We believe that every child, regardless of disabilities, has the right and deserves the opportunity to grow and learn to his or her maximum potential, and to live a life of the highest quality possible. Since our founding in 1947, our commitment has been to afford children and their families exceptional medical care and education in a nurturing, home-like setting. We have remained intentionally small to sustain the personal and individualized care that is our hallmark. Our mission is straightforward: to enrich the lives of children with complex medical and developmental needs, support their families, and collaborate with other community providers to build a continuum of care.
About This Cause
Cedarcrest Center provides post-acute medical care, special education and therapy services for children (infants to age 22) with complex medical and developmental needs. We serve 26 residents at capacity, all of whom require 24-hour nursing support. As New Hampshire's only Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/IID) and only provider of post-acute care for children younger than three, our core service is residential care (stays of one month to several years), but we also provide short-term residential options to meet the needs of families who care for their children who are medically fragile at home. Short-term services include transitions from hospital (neonatal ICU) to home, post-operative rehabilitation, palliative care, feeding evaluations and specialized assessments, and respite services. Through Cedarcrest School, Cedarcrest Center provides a program of individualized special education for up to 20 school-age children, most of whom are residents. We also offer day education services for children with high-acuity medical needs being cared for at home. In addition, we are a significant educational resource in the state for medical, education, and human services professionals through workshops, conference programs, school consultations, pediatric clinical rotations for nursing students, internships, and programs for parents and caregivers. Although our core mission and values have remained essentially unchanged in our 70+ year history, the environment in which we provide those services -- regulatory requirements, health care financing, social expectations and family systems -- is far more sophisticated, and the children we serve are medically much more fragile. To address emerging service needs, we have adopted the following goals: 1/ To ensure a continuum of care options in the best interests of children with complex medical and developmental needs, and their families; 2/ To strengthen and expand the range of support services for families and caregivers, including those who care for medically-vulnerable children at home; 3/ To increase awareness of our own unique role and service capabilities among medical and human services professionals across New Hampshire and the greater Boston region; and 4/ To ensure sustainability of our services and programs in the midst of changing and unpredictable healthcare funding. Since the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1976) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), our society has moved toward educational inclusion, job accommodation, facilities accessibility, and recognition of the rights of individuals with disabilities to live independently, experience self-determination, and participate in community life to the fullest extent possible. At-home care with community-based supports has emerged as the norm for children with disabilities. As a provider of facility-based care, Cedarcrest Center represents something of a divergence from that norm, but we are recognized and respected as an essential partner in ensuring a continuum of care options for children with multiple disabilities. All the children we care for experience the challenges of significant cognitive impairment and profound deficits in adaptive behaviors, and come to us with a range of complex diagnoses: seizure and other neurological disorders, cerebral palsy, hypoxic and traumatic brain injuries, muscular dystrophies, orthopedic complications, and compromised digestive and respiratory systems that require gastroenteral tube feedings,tracheostomy management, and/or ventilator support. The need for our services is particularly acute when economic hardship, lack of access to appropriate emergency medical services, or complex family circumstances compound the child's medical needs. Further, a shortage of primary care physicians, nurses and therapists, impacted by budget reductions in hospitals, clinics, and school districts, perpetuates a lack of adequate community-based services in many rural New Hampshire communities. Advances in medical science have increased survival rates among children whose extreme premature births or high-risk medical profiles would have made their survival much less likely a generation or two ago. As a consequence, the demand for temporary short-term residential care has increased as parents face, growing interruptions in community-based services, health crises of their own, and the enervation that comes from providing 24/7 care. By virtue of their complex medical needs, all children in long-term care at Cedarcrest Center are Medicaid-eligible; the Center is reimbursed for their direct medical expenses at a per diem rate. Direct educational services are funded by each child's home school district, but charitable gifts and grants are the sole funding source for all other needs, including specialized medical and therapy equipment, educational technology, adaptive communication devices, enrichment and recreational programming, facilities improvement, and operational expenses unrelated to direct care. The Center seeks contributions and grants from businesses, foundations, and individuals to fund social and recreational programming, facilities improvements, and specialized equipment purchases, as well as to close the growing gap between the current cost of providing services and the rate at which those services are reimbursed.