Families won't have far to go for respite at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children while their children are treated for cancer and other illnesses. Hospital offers
families respiteA new Kapiolani room gives ill kids'
relatives a place to call homeBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comThe first Ronald McDonald House Family Room in a Hawaii hospital is expected to open at Kapiolani early next month.
It won't be an overnight facility like the two Ronald McDonald houses on Oahu, but it will provide a homey setting to give some relief to families staying a long time with young patients.
Rose Mary Bucher, Kapiolani vice president of patient services, said increased therapies and capabilities are resulting in longer treatment periods, "so if a family comes from the neighbor islands, they are here a lot longer than in the past."
Many families won't leave their child's room, she said. They feel the Ronald McDonald House is too far away, but if they have a place to take a break in the hospital, "they still have a sense of being close to their child," she said.
Gene Davis, spokesman for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Hawaii, said families with children in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units will be given priority because they're in wards or cubicles with no privacy.
"These situations disrupt a whole family's lives," Bucher said, explaining the hospital tries to care for the whole family as part of providing emotional care for patients.
When such caring is provided for families, she said, "Not only are they better, but they are better able to be there for their child.
"That's what's so special about this room. It's going to provide a place where they can take a break, get some refreshments. Some families don't even get away to get something to eat sometimes."
Davis said an increase in children's cases linked to improved medical treatment and protocols has created a great need for families from Guam and the Marianas, as well as the neighbor islands. "They use all of our resources."
The Ronald McDonald Family Room, on the medical center's second floor, will help off-island families and also alleviate hardship for North Shore residents having to go home to shower and get meals, he said.
It also will make it easier for families "if they need a little privacy to process, to grieve, to make important life decisions," he said.
Kapiolani is combining two small rooms for the new facility and the Ronald McDonald House will furnish it, Davis said. It will be 53rd Family Room in Ronald McDonald's system.
It will have a kitchenette, living room and privacy and children's areas.
It will be furnished with a television, VCR, radio, DVD and CD players, magazines and computers with Internet access.
The kitchenette will have a refrigerator, microwave, coffee station and snacks.
Bucher said Ronald McDonald volunteers will staff the room, working with Kapiolani "to keep families strong and give them a place resembling some normalcy in their lives."
The family room will enable them to do normal things, such as paying bills or calling their bank, she said. "They'll be able to talk with other families. They all realize they're in the same boat and very often they can help each other, especially ones who have been there longer."
Davis said Kapiolani's staff "will be our ambassadors, links to families.
"We're fortunate to have staff members from Kapiolani on our board and the majority of patients who use our house are being treated at Kapiolani, so there is ongoing communication."
Volunteers are being recruited to staff the new room seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., said Jerri Chong, executive director of Ronald's McDonald charities in Hawaii.
They must be at least 18 years old and they will be trained.
Those interested should call Malia Martyak at the Ronald McDonald House, 973-5683.