Community Resources & Support Groups

Community resources and support groups provide a valuable resource to our patients and family members.

Bereavement Support Group for Teens
A structured 8-week support group for teens who have experienced the death of a loved one or those who have a loved one with a life-threatening illness. Held at various times throughout the year at the Mourning to Morning Bereavement Center at Hospice of Charleston. For information about upcoming groups, please contact Melvina Pringle, Bereavement Counselor, at 843-529-3100.

Can-Teen Support Group for Teens with Cancer
Can-Teen is a support group for adolescents with cancer. Can-teen provides opportunities for teens to meet their peers, have fun, offer resources and promote well-being and leadership. Can-Teen was created to bring teenagers with cancer together so they can share experiences, help those that are newly diagnosed and to build friendships. For more information, call Michelle Vandermaas at 843-792-1380.

Diabetes Support Group
This group provides support and social interaction for children with diabetes as well as their families. You may contact Megan Taft, LMSW or 843-876-1527, for more information and dates for upcoming groups.

Family Connection of South Carolina
Family Connection's mission is to strengthen families who have children with developmental delays, disabilities or chronic illnesses through a parent-to-parent network of family-focused support to provide assurance, information, community awareness and enhanced parent/professional relationships. Visit the website for more information, or call 800-578-8750.

Palmetto Hearts
Palmetto Hearts serves and supports South Carolinians touched by Congenital Heart Defects and Diseases.  Believing individuals' and families' needs vary as greatly as the CHDs affecting them, we offer several types of support — emotional, informational, social, and financial.  We present a yearly conference on CHD-related topics, offer family outings, a yearly reunion with the MUSC Pediatric Cardiology Department, and provide financial assistance as funds are available for travel, hotel, meal, and bereavement expenses. Visit the website, for more information.

Reach Out and Read (ROR)
Reach Out and Read Charleston is an innovative clinic-based literacy program modeled after the national Reach Out and Read (ROR) program developed at Boston Medical Center and supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was implemented by the pediatric primary care services at MUSC Children's Hospital in October 1999 and was a collaborative effort among MUSC College of Nursing, department of pediatrics, the child life department, MUSC Volunteer Services, and the Trident Literacy Association. The program recognizes that literacy is a part of overall health and that the ability to read is integral to personal health and well-being.

Reach Out and Read Charleston targets low-income families during their scheduled well-child visits. The following are the three key components to the program:

  1. New, developmentally and culturally appropriate books are given to children six months to five years of age by physicians during well-child visits
  2. Anticipatory guidance is provided to parents about literacy activities for children
  3. Volunteers and students read to children, and thus, model reading aloud for parents in the waiting room

Children who participate from early infancy will receive nine books by their fifth birthday. Parents receive bookmarks with age-specific literacy information and a prescription to read to their child each day. If parents are identified as having low literacy, they are referred to the Trident Literacy Association. For more information about this program, contact Amy Allen, outpatient clinic manager, at 843-792-7909.

Ronald McDonald Family Room
The Ronald McDonald Family Room is located on the 7th floor of the Children's Hospital, room 735. Coffee and snacks are available as well as the comfort of a living room environment for parents and families to enjoy. The room also offers a shower for use by parents of patients who are in NNICU, PICU, SCN and PCICU. The family room is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily.

Ronald McDonald House
The Ronald McDonald House serves as a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at Charleston area hospitals. To qualify, parents must be over 18 years of age, live more than 25 miles away and have a child 18 or under receiving treatment at a local medical facility. For more information or to be placed on a waiting list, please call 843-723-7957 or contact your hospital social worker, doctor's clinic, nurse or care manager for a referral.

Safe Kids Charleston Area
Founded in 1995 and led by MUSC Children's Health, Safe Kids Charleston Area serves Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties. Our coalition is one of more than 400 in the United States that brings together health and safety experts, educators, corporations, foundations, governments and volunteers to protect families.

SC Burned Children’s Fund
MUSC Children's Hospital Burned Children's Fund is a continuation of a program founded in 1986 by South Carolina's firefighters and MUSC Children's Hospital to ease the recovery process for pediatric burn patients and their families.

Shannon's Hope (for children who have lost someone close to them)
Shannon's Hope is a special weekend camp for grieving children from 6 to 15 years of age. Held at Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island since 1989, Shannon's Hope offers an opportunity for children to experience an accepting and fun environment in which they can express and share their feelings about the loss of a parent, sibling, grandparent or close friend. A small fee for the weekend camp is requested, however, scholarships are available based on need. For more information on Shannon's Hope, call Nicole Cooper at 843-216-7323. Shannon's Hope is a program provided by Bridges. 

Turner Syndrome Support Group
This group provide support and social interaction for children with Turner Syndrome as well as their families. You may contact Megan Taft, LMSW or 843-876-1527, for more information and dates for upcoming groups.