Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Carol “Shorty” W. from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Social services should be afforded the ability to go see the living conditions and doctors should once again get in the practice of prescribing nutrition. Had that happened at the first sign of trouble on a doctors visit for compulsive eating years ago and mental health follow up into the home…this…
Helping Heart Foundation Resident Craig from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Craig became a Helping Heart Foundation Resident a few years ago when he realized his options for safe, secure and affordable housing were running out. Having battled a lifelong addiction to alcohol and drugs Craig was beset upon by injuries and illnesses that made life on the street–and therefore life in and out of hospitals–an impossibility. Craig’s life is still difficult, but with the stable environment that the Helping Hearts Foundation provides he is making it one day at a time.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 503(c) non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Wash your hands.
Western medicine is an amazing achievement in human history. To have banished from daily life the unsanitary conditions that breed viruses, bacteria and parasites is a major reason why humans are flourishing on the earth. Yet even in the most affluent of countries and the richest of cities, the causes of a great percentage of sickness and disease survive. A simple illness becomes a major illness when given the right conditions: A dirty kitchen breeds Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, a cut on the foot becomes a wound that won’t heal, a cold becomes pneumonia.
Every case is different but after a while, working within the system that was created to help the people so affected by poverty and disease, you can’t help but start to see patterns at work. Just as a thing is impossible to ignore once its existence is known, how can you turn your back on those in need? The elderly, the sick and the disabled living in society are often living in squalor, for no reason other than they can’t get around to clean like they once may have, and it’s unlikely they can afford to pay a cleaning service on a fixed income.
It’s the call no one ever wants to get. The one that comes in the middle of dinner, the middle of movie night, in the middle of the night: your loved one is in the hospital? How? Where? Why? What happened? A flood of questions inundates the mind, but the answers trickle out like the mirage of an oasis in the desert. These are the calls we get on a weekly and even a daily basis: can you please find a clean place to live for my father, my aunt, this patient? At the same time we can help a family member, a friend, a neighbor, we can also help stop the spread of unnecessary sickness and relieve the overcrowding in the hospitals, in the emergency rooms and in the shelters.
Wash your hands.
Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Alberto from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Alberto’s is a bittersweet story of a man with a loving family, a positive outlook on life, boundless energy who was diagnosed with multiple terminal illnesses and spent his last days as a resident of the Helping Hearts Foundation. Surrounded by family and friends, he was smiling and talking up to the end. We wish that he may rest in peace.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Sue & Bridget from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Sue & Bridget have formed a part of the Helping Hearts Community for more than a year now. Living in the same house has allowed them to form a bond which has sped along the healing process for both of them, each in their own different ways. Proper placement within a nurturing environment while helping to maintain their autonomy and independence is just one of the ways we strive to help people.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Helping Hearts Foundation Residents Roland and Janette from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Roland & his wife Janette have been with Helping Hearts Foundation for more than two years. Despite their own physical disabilites they do their best to act as anchors to the community of residents, by fixing breakfast every morning and talking openly and honestly.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Helping Hearts Resident Rescue - Tara
It’s easy to take a safe, secure and healthy living environment for granted. Most people grow up without having to worry about these seemingly simple requirements. They are just there, provided by an invisible network of parents and family, friends and co-workers. It is a part of the social contract. Yet for a small, but growing percentage of people, cracks in the network are showing. The contract is showing its age.
The global economy is unpredictable. Jobs are shipped overseas. Unemployment keeps on going up. Prices on basic needs like food and water, shelter and utilities are rising. Many people who are lucky enough to have a job live paycheck to paycheck, unable to save anything for a rainy day. Those that don’t live hand to mouth and often depend on the government for any of the following Social Security programs:
What happens when you wake up in the hospital after having been struck down by a sudden illness, hit by a car, or worse debilitated by a disease you had no idea ran in your family? Do you have a healthy savings account? Family to care for you? Medical insurance? Or are you a part of the growing number of Americans who walk around without a safety net? Assisted living, skilled nursing, and board and care facilities can be outrageously expensive. What is the alternative in today’s downturn economy? Overcrowded living conditions in vermin-infested residential housing? Is that the American dream or the American nightmare?
Tara is an example of a humble and selfless mother of four who has seen more than her share of doctors offices. Recently having undergone a hip replacement surgery and scheduled to undergo a replacement on the other hip as well as both knees in the coming year, she found herself living in a house teeming with both tenants and vermin. Overcrowded with individuals on fixed-low incomes as well as infested with rodents, cockroaches and toxic black mold, Tara realized that it was time for a change.
Within a few hours of informing her UC Davis Medical center orthopedist of her living situation Helping Hearts Foundation had gotten in contact with her and was on their way out to her place of residence. The photos below represent how they found her and–after explaining the Helping Hearts Foundation system to her (she agreed to relocate the following day)–providing her with a tour of the house she moved into.
Perhaps the phrase what a difference a day makes has never rung so true.
Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Kurt from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
“Nothing can get me down.” Kurt always says. A professional arm-wrestler sponsored by Budweiser, this Auburn native was a peer counselor for troubled youth when a workplace accident—a mere slip on the floor—altered the course of his life. Becoming L-1 paraplegic and legally blind due to complications with aggressive Dry Macular and Retinal diseases, he also has a pacemaker, and Six Sinus Syndrome and Regional Complex Pain Syndrome. To help him contend with these seemingly overwhelming disabilities one rescue Chihuahua from Kern County named Hami and a Canine Companions-licensed service Labrador named Anika.
While attending Hadley School for the Blind he regularly lifts weights and swims at the YMCA . He also plays baseball through Sacramento Access Leisure, plays the drums, is teaching himself bass guitar, and is a balsa wood model enthusiast.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Krista from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Krista is the youngest resident the Helping Hearts Foundation has reached out to. She has been with us only a short time, but has touched the lives of many around her with her warm and exuberant energy and her desire to overcome life’s many obstacles. With positive outlook and continued support she will go far.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Arturo from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.
Arturo has been a resident with Helping Hearts Foundation for more than a year. Since joining us he has thrived as an artist who appreciates the independent lifestyle HHF offers its residents.
Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.
