Chicago Home Care Resources
Transition QuickGuide: Take Charge of Planning and Managing Your Own Health and Career Goals
The Transition QuickGuide checklist provides information and resources about health insurance coverage, self-care, health care transition, decision-making and career planning and management.
Bounce Children’s Foundation is a Chicago area non-profit that aims to transform the lives of chronically ill children, and their families, shifting all from surviving to thriving. The foundation serves children from birth to 18 years of age.
Bounce’s free programs aim to build the resilience needed to cope with the ongoing, unexpected setbacks that define chronic illness. Programs include family adventures, education to strengthen vital coping skills, donated tickets to high demand events, themed care packages for household families, access to resources, peer support and more.
American Heart Association Support Network
A free online social community of survivors and family caregivers who share information and inspiration. Support Network members trade tips, compare notes and shore each other up when the going gets rough. Members also have access to healthcare professionals who can answer their questions. Plus, specialized resources from the American Heart Association.
Sleep Help for Individuals With ASD
Autism Speaks offers parents helpful tips for establishing good sleep hygiene and tool kits targeting sleep strategies for children, teens and adults on the spectrum.
Fresh Start Surgical Gifts provides reconstructive surgery at no cost to families of children who are uninsured, underinsured, denied procedures as cosmetic or the deductible would be a financial hardship to the family. Surgery weekends are held three times a year at Comer Children’s Hospital.
Special Recreation Associations in Illinois
The Special Recreation Associations Network of Illinois (SRANI) is a network of therapeutic recreation agencies. Special Recreation Associations provide community-based special recreation services to children and adults with disabilities. You can see a list of special recreation cooperatives available in Illinois.
For more information, visit the SRANI website.
Premier Kids: Primary Care at La Rabida Children’s Hospital
Premier Kids is a medical home program for children birth to age 6 with special needs. It provides primary care services for children with medically complex conditions and/or developmental delays. To make an appointment, call (733) 256-5700, ext. 2.
Illinois Student Assistance Commission
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC)‘s mission is to provide Illinois students with information and assistance to help make education beyond high school accessible and affordable.
ISAC provides comprehensive, objective, and timely information on education and financial aid for students and their families—giving them access to the tools they need to make the educational choices that are right for them. Then, through the state scholarship and grant programs ISAC administers, ISAC can help students make those choices a reality.
The ISAC Student Portal offers free online tools and resources for students, as well as short videos about college planning and financial aid. It also offers ISAC College Q&A, a free texting service that allows any student to submit their financial aid and college planning questions and receive a response from ISAC staff.
ISAC also offers assistance through the agency’s call center at (800) 899-4722 (ISAC).
DSCC’s Health Care Transition Tip Sheet
Health care transition means moving from pediatric (child) to adult health care. A good transition takes planning. This tip sheet from the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) can help you and your family plan for transition. It includes information on who should help with health care transition planning, where to find resources and steps you can take to get the services you need so you can lead the kind of life you want to have.
Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities
The Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities (CDD) helps lead change in Illinois so all people with developmental disabilities exercise their right to equal opportunity and freedom.
ICDD provides information, investments and initiatives to ensure that people with developmental disabilities and their families have a part in the design of and access to culturally competent services, supports and other assistance and opportunities that promote independence, productivity and integration and inclusion into the community.