About the Foundation
In 2014 the Zellmer Childhood Disease Foundation will change it’s name to the Zellmer Wellness Foundation. This name change reflects the positive commitment of the family and it’s Board of Directors and Advisors, and the passion to help individuals, living with chronic illness, live full lives both physically and mentally.
What started as a small family operation selling pumpkins from our family farm in Iowa has become a national foundation. Over the past ten years the family has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund research, education and programs throughout Chicago.
Our Mental Health Initiative
The Living Room
The Zellmer Wellness Foundation provides the Living Room models for established agencies for the purpose of evaluating individuals in crisis. The Living Room offers an alternative to costly emergency department (ED) presentations for psychiatric assessment/intervention for those experiencing stressful and anxiety provoking situations and/or suicidal ideation. The Living Room offers a calm and safe environment for crises presentation. What makes this type of intervention unique is the involvement of Peer counselors with personal experience in managing the challenges of mental illness. These Peer counselors will provide: crisis intervention, support and mentoring with assistance from clinicians.
Our Diabetes Initiative
The Bionic Pancreas – Using mathematics to treat diabetes, five minutes at a time.
The Zellmer Wellness Foundation is supporting the work of Edward Damiano, Ph.D., from Boston University. He is working to make automated blood glucose control a reality. Engineers from Boston University have developed a closed-loop bionic pancreas system that uses continuous glucose monitoring along with subcutaneous delivery of both rapid-acting insulin (to lower blood glucose) and glucagon (to raise blood glucose) as directed by a computer algorithm. The bionic pancreas automatically makes a new decision about insulin and glucagon dosing every five minutes. The system is being tested in people with type 1 diabetes at Massachusetts General Hospital Achieving and maintaining near-normal blood glucose concentrations are critical for the long-term health of people with diabetes. The Bionic Pancreas will be available in 2017.
Advertising opportunities available for 2014! Email us today.
