Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2005. This is a photo I just recently found and I am so happy to have it! I remember this moment in time. We were visiting my parents in Los Angeles. A neighboring city was having a festival and closed down some streets for all sorts of activities. As you can see one of the activities was pony rides. This wasn't Mattie's first time riding a horse, which was why he looked much for confident in his saddle. Mattie had a great time that day on the ponies, petting other visiting barn yard animals, and even riding around on a mini train.
Quote of the day: Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. ~ Michael Jordan
Fortunately Peter was a business consultant before entering his current occupation. This skill set is tremendous because typically non-profits have to pay thousands of dollars for what he did with us today, which was to develop goals, objectives, and activities necessary to implement the newly published psychosocial standards of care. This task may sound EASY, but it isn't because psychosocial care is quite complex. Especially when you factor in that multiple professions provide this care and we need the assistance of legislators and health insurance companies behind us to make this a reality.
Here were the wonderful professionals in attendance:
Dr. Nina Muriel (Chief, Division of Pediatric Psychosocial Oncology
Senior Physician at Dana Farber Cancer Institute)
Dr. Bob Noll (Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine)
Dr. Anne Kazak (Co-Director of the Nemours Center for Healthcare Delivery Science)
Dr. Mary Jo Kupst (Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin)
Dr. Andrea Patenaude (Director of Psycho-Oncology Research in the Divsion of Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Dr. Lori Wiener (Co-Director, Behaviorial Health Core
Head, Psychosocial Support and Research Program, National Cancer Institute)
Dr. Pam Hinds (Associate Center Director, Center for Translational Science; Director, Nursing Research and Quality Outcomes, Children's National Health System)
Peter and I want to thank Voxiva, INC for allowing us to use their wonderful conference room all day today! Voxiva has been incredibly supportive of us both emotionally and financially. In addition, Peter's boss (Justin, Co-CEO of Voxiva) even came in to chat with the group for thirty minutes. Justin shared his expertise working with health insurance companies and presented some viable options for us to pursue with the psychosocial standards.
1 comment:
I think it is quite amazing and speaks to the quality of the MATTIE MIRACLE FOUNDATION'S MISSION that you gathered Specialists in many fields related to Pediatric Oncology to work collaboratively on the standards of Psychosocial care for children in treatment for Cancer.
I applaud and support your Mission. This care is so needed and will help children & families tremendously who are facing a Childhoid Cancer diagnosis. Thanks from a person who cares so much for the whole child. All the years I work, each child was treated individually. They weren't their diagnosis, they were so much more!!!!
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