Friday, September 27, 2019

Friday, September 27, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2007. Mattie was five years old and in kindergarten. That day he came home from school with this creation. Mattie participated in "construction club," an after school program. The club was run by Mattie's kindergarten teacher and the kids got to work with everyday household objects and create from their imagination. The kids used glue guns and all sorts of other tools in the creation process. Honestly I think this was where Mattie's love for cardboard boxes came from. Which was a God sent because while in the hospital, Mattie requested boxes. Though Mattie did not have the physical energy and capability to run around, he still had his manual dexterity and interest in building. It was a great way to pass the LONG days in-patient. 


Quote of the day: We can choose to be affected by the world or we can choose to affect the world. ~ Heidi Wills


Mattie Miracle launched a psychosocial research grant program in 2018, with both the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON) and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). We are committed to seeing the Psychosocial Standards of Care implemented and we knew funding implementation research would help to make this wish a reality. In addition, by housing our grants at professional associations, we are assured access to top quality clinicians and researchers in the psychosocial field. The associations have research committees that evaluate our grant requests, thereby making the award decisions fair and based on the rigor of the science. 

The grants program was so successful, that we have decided not only to continue it this year, but to also offer our current grantees continuation grants. So they can continue to expand the scope of their research project, if the objectives and deliverables will help us achieve our psychosocial mission... which on the national level is to provide children with cancer and their families access to optimal psychosocial care from the time of diagnosis, through treatment, into survivorship, or end of life and bereavement care. 

In 2018-2019, we funded $40,000 worth of research grants! Grants given to psycho-oncologists all over the Country. We created a promotional video in for the nursing association. Click on the picture to see it.  

Today we made the decision to offer our first continuation grant of $10,000 to Kim Canter. Kim was the first recipient of our early investigator award and we are honored we can continue to support her in 2019-2020. Kim is well on her way to developing an evidence based on-line support program for families, which would help meet two of our Standards of Care (assessment and supportive care for parents). 



About our APOS grants:
https://apos-society.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MMCF.APOS_.LOI2_.pdf