Awaiting an organ or tissue transplant can be a challenging, stressful time. That’s why it helps to have your family with you for support—but housing and affordability concerns often make that impossible.
That’s where Gift of Life Howie’s House comes in: located just a few miles from TUH-Main Campus, it provides temporary, cost-effective lodging and supportive services to patients and their families who have come to Philadelphia for a transplant.
Since Howie’s House opened its doors in 2011, many Temple Health patients have stayed there, and we’ve established a close relationship. “We’ve had the honor of going over to make meals for patients and families there at least once or twice a year,” says Shamin Mathews, MSW, LSW, Manager of Community Living Engagement & Volunteer Services in the Main Campus Office of Patient Experience.
“This year, Patient Experience wanted to do something more for Howie’s House, so we partnered with our Patient and Family Advisory Council and the Medical Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (MRICU) to hold a Health System-wide donation drive for their organization,” Mathews continues. MRICU staff members work especially closely with Howie’s House, as their unit treats some of the largest numbers of transplant patients at Temple Health.
Mathews and the rest of the team coordinating the drive—including Catelin Sayen, BSN, RN, CCRN, PCCN, Director of Nursing for the MRICU—circulated flyers and notices around the Health System asking their colleagues to donate items like canned beans, rice, pasta, cereal, laundry detergent, storage bags, and travel-sized amenities.
“The drive lasted about five weeks, and we were able to get the word out to both inpatient and outpatient areas,” Mathews says. “We were given so many canned goods, boxed goods, toiletries, pots and pans, and more. We received close to 40 bags worth of donations, filled to the brim. My office looked like a food pantry.”
The team then worked with Joe Paparo, Senior Hospital Services Coordinator with Gift of Life, to coordinate the donation drop-off to Howie’s House. Thanks to their generosity, patients and families won’t have to worry about getting their hands on essentials in this difficult time—and as everyone who’s ever been to Howie’s House knows, that makes all the difference.