As most of you are aware, since December of 2015, Capernaum has been able to focus exclusively on our home-based, community site, school, and aquatic services providing occupational, physical, and speech therapy to children ages birth to 21. We are excited to strengthen our service in these areas.
Our home-based services are provided to children ages birth to three who are medically fragile, post surgery, or experiencing undue hardship. We understand the challenges of having a homebound or newly diagnosed child with complex medical needs and recognize the impact this has on the entire family. We know that we are guests in the home and consider it a privilege to be able to serve in this capacity. When children are provided therapy services in the familiar surroundings of their home, it is much easier to fit needed exercises into the family’s daily routines. Our referrals continue to grow, and this summer, we will have more full-time home-based therapy staff to serve families in this capacity.
Our community sites continue to be at the heart of who we are. We love to partner with agencies who are serving children at risk, providing therapeutic factors that raise the chance of good outcomes, and facilitating the child’s development. We are currently partnering with several agencies that support families with financial hardships, challenges with housing, mental health concerns, limited education, unemployment, teen mothers, and those whose first language is not English.
Our school services continue to grow. We have been serving in traditional public district schools since the late ‘80s! We also serve in several charter schools throughout the metro area. Our therapists are experienced with the IEP process and believe in the integrated service delivery model. We work hard to support the student, their family, and the school staff members.
Most recently, we have begun to work in the private schools. Here, we have a ‘mini’ clinic model. The students are able to stay in the school all day and receive their OT, PT, or speech services on site. This allows for great communication between the teachers and the therapists and makes for great programming right in the facility where they spend their day! This is an exciting new area for us, and we hope to see it continue to grow.
Our aquatic (pool) services are currently provided at Summit Place in Eden Prairie. We have enjoyed a great relationship with the team at Summit Place while serving children from around the metro area. The pool is a great place to work on physical, sensory, and language development in children with varying needs. It is a very motivating place for the child, and often, they are willing to do things in the pool that they wouldn’t do on land.
It has been a very busy but very rewarding past few months. We believe this intentional focus on these areas will allow us to provide more opportunities for serving children in these settings. Capernaum continues to desire to “Go above and beyond therapy to help families find joy in their journey, right where they live, learn, and play!”
