Proceeds from the Ninth Annual Tidewater Chapter CPCU Golf Tournament went to the Edmarc Hospice for Children. Edmarc’s mission is to ease the trauma of a child’s illness or death, and to reduce the disabling effects of pediatric illness, loss, and bereavement on families.
Edmarc sees a community in which no child or family is denied pediatric hospice services and a society that wholeheartedly accepts and supports pediatric hospice care. The health care services allow a child with a life-limiting illness to stay at home whenever possible. Remaining at home helps alleviate some of the child’s stress, and can make healthcare for the child less traumatic.
But when a child is ill, Edmarc never forgets that the entire family is affected. Families who have a child with a life-limiting illness experience a high level of stress, including emotional, social, spiritual, and financial pressures. This stress often becomes debilitating to the entire family, sometimes resulting in dysfunctional family dynamics, financial hardship, and divorce. Numerous studies cite a divorce rate of 75% in families where a child has died. In Edmarc bereaved families, the marriage failure rate is less than 20%.
Since 1978, Edmarc’s program has grown steadily, indicating a need for this unique type of care. Edmarc has served 733 families in Hampton Roads and more than 2500 family members in the past 25 years.
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