Trinitas Regional Medical Center is considering Giving Tuesday, November 29, to raise $50,000 in one day to expand its behavioral health program.
This serves people who have developmental disabilities and mental illness, for whom progress can come in small steps. But the development director, Laura Ciraco, tells the story of a mother who called her son and received a big surprise.
“He was saying, ‘I was watching George on TV,’ and the mother asked, ‘Who is George? What is George? and he said George Stephanopoulos, and she was amazed,” Ciraco said. “She said, ‘My son is 60 years old and he’s never said that much to me before, and he can even say George Stephanopoulos now, we can even have a conversation now.
Ciraco explained why it is so important to raise this money.
“This is a population that is difficult to raise funds for due to the fact that this is not a home run story,” he said. “Mental illness patients with developmental disabilities are not going to college, continuing to have businesses, or fledgling aspirations for the future.”
She said the pandemic restrictions reduced the number of patients they could see.
“With Covid, a lot of the rooms had to be single rooms, and then we were hardly seeing any patients, which is why the need is so great in our state,” Ciraco said. “So we embarked on a campaign, a $3.2 million campaign, which has now grown to close to $4 million because of issues like the supply chain.”
Ciraco said they have already raised $3.3 million from that $4 million campaign.
He said they want to expand the number of beds from 12 to 22, but since the maximum stay is only about 30 days, that will mean helping about 550 people a year, instead of 250.
Ciraco said Giving Tuesday donations will be matched 100%.
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