On October 30, 2014 at a press conference at Visiting Nurse Association's Farnsworth Center in Aurora, the Dunham Fund announced a challenge grant to Cadence Health for their Aurora Home-Centered Care Initiative. The Fund awarded a $300,000 outright grant in 2014, to be followed by a challenge grant of up to $700,000, matching $1 for every additional $1 raised by the Cadence Initiative through 2016.  The Fund will also provide the initiative with fundraising support through its Partnerships division . . . a service offered to Dunham Fund challenge grant recipients.  

The Institute to Advance Home-Centered Care, is a collaboration of Cadence Health with VNA Healthcare(VNA), HomeCare Physicians (HCP) and other key strategic partners to create an innovative Aurora-based model of home-centered care delivery to support some of the area's most medically complex patients. The Institute will partner with one or more technology companies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of home-centered care and to create a shared electronic communication platform supporting dialogue and information exchange between all members of the care team, including the family.

The existing VNA HouseCalls model (serving 12,000 individuals since 2003) and the HCP physicians' model will continue during the first year of the initiative and will be greatly expanded over the grant period. It is the hope of the Institute that this initiative will be adopted by other healthcare providers as a nationally recognized model for excellent home-centered care.

Dunham Fund: Proud Partners of Home Centered Care Institute

Dr. Thomas Cornwell, founder of the Home-Centered Care Institute, was recently chosen to receive a 2014 Caregiver Action Network (CAN) award as part of the Network's Advancing Excellence: Best Practices in Patient and Family Engagement. His institute was selected as one of "25 of the Nation's Best Practices in Patient and Family Engagement."  The Caregiver Action Network is the nation's leading family caregiver nonprofit organization working to improve the quality of life for the 65 million Americans who care for loved ones with chronic conditions, disabilities, disease, or the frailties of old age.  It serves a broad spectrum of family caregivers ranging from parents of children with special needs to families and friends of wounded soldiers; from a young couple dealing with a diagnosis of MS to adult children caring for parents with Alzheimer's disease.  CAN provides education, peer support, and resources to family caregivers across the country free of charge.