Integrative Touch for Kids

I have been a pioneer in the field of Integrative Medicine for 20 years. I am the founder and Executive Director of Integrative Touch for Kids (ITK), a non-profit organization that enhances well-being, minimizes suffering and facilitates healing for children with special medical needs and their families. As the Executive Director of ITK, I am spearheading the creation of a new wellness model for children and their families. The model focuses on a “Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community” approach to wellness and healing. I am a frequent public speaker on wellness topics and have presented at numerous medical conferences. I developed Integrative Touch™ therapy and teach internationally. In 2003, I was awarded the Women’s Studies Achievement Award from UCLA, in 2020 I received the Civic Leadership Award from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and am recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Pioneer for Children’s Wellbeing.

Being a child who has special medical needs can be scary and stressful - especially for young children and their families, and Integrative Touch for Kids (ITK) is trying to change that. ITK’s therapists offer Integrative TouchTM Therapy and wellness resources to hospitalized and non-hospitalized children and their families. We play a crucial role in enhancing well-being, minimizing suffering and facilitating healing for families with kids with developmental disabilities, genetic conditions, cancers, and other chronic, acute, and life limiting illnesses and the greater community. Given the changes with COVID-19, hospitals are not allowing visitors. Social connection and wellness tools are an integral part of healing, so ITK created virtual Telehealth Programs to continue to provide crucial services in times of isolation. We seek to break down social barriers and engage communities in support of families struggling with special medical needs, improving the quality of life for all.

1 in 5 children in the United States has a special health care need, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. These life-altering illnesses and the medical treatments that come with them create stress and trauma for children and families. Studies have shown that a person’s brain processes are disrupted by extreme, toxic, adverse trauma and stress. The inflammation caused by toxic, adverse stress can set a person up for lifelong health problems such as: heart disease, autoimmune disease, depression, anxiety or PTSD, if not addressed. The only known way to rebuild those lost neural and synaptic connections is through integrative therapies (Childhood Disrupted). Integrative therapy can reduce inflammation in the brain and body.  These effects of toxic stress are not just present in the child with special medical needs, but within the family, as well. Research has demonstrated that moms of children with autism experience chronic levels of stress hormones consistent with soldiers in combat. ITK offers healing integrative therapies to children who experience a life altering illness and their families as well as wellness tools to help them cope with the stresses that come with complex medical conditions, all at no cost to the patient and families.

Integrative Touch for Kids’ Hospital and Telehealth Programs take place at Banner Children’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona and in homes across the country. Teams of therapists provide integrative healing therapies and wellness education skills with a special focus on pediatric pain management and symptoms of traumatic stress. Given the recent changes with COVID-19, more medically fragile children than ever before are in need of our services. We have quickly taken measures to provide virtual resources to families through a web based portal and implemented an effective pandemic strategy to respond to this health crisis and protect our vulnerable population. Many hospitals during this time are restricting visitors to the hospital, including parents, which leaves many young patients alone and frightened, so ITK created Telehealth programs to respond to this urgent need.The TeleFriend Program pairs an adult and a young person together to be friends with a hospitalized child - or a child who is isolated at home. The TeleWellness Program pairs a team of professional healers with kids with kids and their family members to offer wellness tools for managing stress, pain, and anxiety. These programs could be scaled up to bring healing to more needy children across the country.

Currently, ITK serves young patients battling life altering conditions and their families and caregivers in Southern Arizona and across the country. Most of our patients are from the Southwestern US, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, but we work in all 50 states. ITK partners with researchers at the University of Arizona to collect data in the form of pre and post treatment evaluations to assess outcomes, collect demographic information, and publish results. Additionally, we hold focus groups with our patients, families, and other stakeholders to solicit more in-depth feedback as we continue to evolve our programs. Our patients and families come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds: 45% identify as Hispanic/Latinx, 10% each as Native American/Alaskan Native, Asian, African American, and Caucasian, 5% as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 10% did not specify. More than 70% of the families we serve are low-income. Our new Telehealth programs have the opportunity to replicate our far-reaching results: in our Hospital Program we saw a 60% reduction in pain, 62% reduction in anxiety, and a 52% increase in well-being. It is more important than ever to provide medically fragile children and their families with the tools needed to thrive. 

Medically fragile children, along with their families, are often isolated and left behind. Our programs offer relief from stress and pain as well as social connection with other families and people in our larger community, It has been shown that our Integrative TouchTM Therapy helps patients better tolerate medical treatments, lessens the amount of pain medication and anesthesia needed, and lower re-admittance rates to the hospital. All of our programs and treatments are offered at no cost, which allows many patients and families to access the healing benefits of integrative therapies that many would not otherwise be able to afford. 

In 2005, as a pre-med student at UCLA observing surgery, I found myself with a terrified eleven-year-old girl who was about to have an appendectomy. I noticed the staff were busy making sure that the girl’s physical needs were met, but no one was addressing her profound fear. I felt that there must be a better way. I had been working as a massage therapist and saw the power of healing touch. I deferred my plans to become a surgeon, and charted a new course in providing healing to medically fragile children. I approached the head of pediatric surgery at Children's Hospital LA, who was immediately receptive. I continued to modify my program, expanding to offer over 100 different therapeutic modalities. During this early time, I realized the importance of working with the entire family. I began to use my technique on the parents and siblings and remarkable things happened: parents were calmer and more present for their child; siblings, less anxious and frightened, and this all aided in the child’s healing. In 2005, I formed Integrative Touch for Kids, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing this “whole child, whole family” model of integrative care to hospitals everywhere.

Sarah is a two-year-old patient who was thrown from a car during a tragic car accident. During a therapeutic session with an ITK Therapist, she started to act out scenes from the accident. She quickly bonded with her Integrative Touch therapist, chattering away and smiling, even conjuring up laughs as her traumatic experiences bubbled up to be healed. After her session ended, she slept peacefully for the first time since the accident. She also opened her clenched right fist that the medical staff thought wouldn't open as a result of a brain injury. It was actually emotional and physical trauma that was being held in her hand. When that released, her hand opened up like a flower.

It’s stories like Sarah’s and the eleven-year-old girl in 2005 that remind me of my passion for ITK’s work. I see firsthand the profound importance of caring for the whole child in body, mind, heart, and spirit. Integrative therapies are often the missing link to help families with kids who struggle with pain, trauma, and complex medical conditions. I founded ITK and continue to do this healing work to protect children from unnecessary suffering and ensure optimal healing for the whole family.

My Masters in Public Health and background in clinical programs and research, spanning the past 20 years, has focused on the field of pediatric integrative medicine. I, have been recognized as a pioneer and leader in the field nationally. Along with founding ITK, I was the co-creator of the Integrative Touch Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and also worked with TrinityKids Care, the largest pediatric hospice in LA to create a compassionate touch program for children at end of life. I draw on a community of over 450 dedicated volunteers, ranging from physicians, nurses, integrative therapists, youth, and adults. These volunteers are the lifeblood of ITK and employ our mission to change the way people experience health and healing. ITK's programs have been shown time and again to provide profoundly positive outcomes. After just one Integrative TouchTM Therapy session patients experience a 60% reduction in pain, 62% reduction in anxiety, and a 52% increase in overall well-being. The Hospital Program is well-positioned for long-term sustainability, and relies on the support of individual donors, foundations, community partners, and volunteers for its success and continued growth. ITK is the only organization to offer team based integrative therapies not just to the child, but to the whole family. We also are one of the only organizations to offer all of our services at no cost. With meaningful experience and ITK’s strong community of supporters, including donors and volunteers, we are poised to grow and replicate our programs with far-reaching results. 

The recent and rapid changes due to COVID-19 created a challenge for ITK, especially since we have "Touch" in our name. Given that our model of care relies on in-person interactions between therapists, children and families, and now in-person interactions are severely limited if not impossible, especially for high-risk hospitalized kids, ITK was in a position to lose all of its programs. I quickly took the lead and implemented an effective pandemic strategy with the full cooperation of our board of directors to respond to this crisis and protect our vulnerable population. This plan included innovative solutions to continue to bring our services to children and families remotely, especially during this uncertain and stressful time. It includes a plan to redirect funds to our new Telehealth programs and to seek new grant opportunities to recuperate lost funds. Additionally, ITK partnered with the hospital to support ICU nurses and created a Wellness Resource webpage to connect the greater community to tools they can use to maintain wellness during a global pandemic. During this trying time I have come up with creative solutions to new problems and questions that arise daily, demonstrating leadership in the face of adversity and enormous global challenges. 

As a pre-med student, I was planning to be a pediatric surgeon. Witnessing the severe suffering of one child in need changed my whole life and gave me the courage to take my concerns to the head of surgery. I co-wrote a grant for close to 1 million dollars to fund my newly inspired program, and that was just the beginning. Throughout the history of ITK, I have shown strong leadership skills, including spearheading the creation of a new wellness model called “health-caring” for children with special medical needs and their families. I have been recognized for my leadership through various awards: I received the Civic Leadership Award by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona and was a finalist for the 2020 Women of Influence Awards. I was selected as a Pioneer for Children’s Wellbeing by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was recognized as a Notable Woman in Arizona and featured in a portrait gallery exhibit along with Sandra Day O’Connor and Gabrielle Giffords. I serve on a national health advisory board and have consistently increased access to pediatric integrative care for children and families. My conference keynotes and advocacy help families to thrive through extraordinary trauma and uncertainty.

The goal of ITK’s work is to enable a practice change in community based pediatric healthcare. The current healthcare system uses a prescriptive treatment model, whereas ITK uses a receptive listening model that places the child and their entire family at the center of their care. All of our programs are driven by families themselves and use a team based approach. ITK is the first and so far only organization to not only offer integrative therapies to children with a special medical need but also their families and caregivers. We recognize that having a hospitalized kid can be traumatic and stressful for the whole community of people involved, and the healing effects increase substantially when everyone is treated. ITK has developed and launched the largest pediatric integrative medicine retreats in the country and successfully run them for more than 10 years, as well as the first ever Integrative Touch Hospital program at Banner Children’s Hospital that has been operational since 2014. As ITK’s founder, I have pioneered a new proprietary healing therapy. Integrative Touch™ therapy is a practice in personalized medicine where therapists engage in a conversation with a patient, both verbally and nonverbally, in order to help them identify and transform their own place of greatest suffering, improving patient outcomes and supporting long-term healing. ITK serves as a catalyst to accelerate the integration of conventional and complementary approaches to health care. This innovative model aims to transform pediatric medical care—paving the way to optimal health, healing and well-being. 

This is the first generation in history where it is predicted that our children will have a shorter lifespan than their parents. 1 in 5 children has some type of special healthcare need and one quarter of all U.S households have at least one child with a special medical need. Today, more children are diagnosed with cancer than ever before. We are at a pivotal moment. We are spending more than 17% of our GDP on healthcare—a jump of more than 150% since 1970, more money than ever before, AND we’re getting sicker. What are we missing? A team of doctors recently looked at more than 1,000 scientific abstracts and 250 research papers to see if caring and compassion in medicine has a quantifiable rationale (See Compassionomics). They discovered that the answer is definitely YES. And yet, 50% of Americans believe our healthcare system and its providers are not compassionate. The physicians that reviewed this data concluded that we currently have a Compassion Crisis in healthcare. 

Studies show that a person’s brain processes are disrupted by long-term toxic stress, like that which accompanies a long hospital stay or medical crisis. Integrative therapies are the only known way to rebuild these lost neural connections. (Childhood Disrupted) This also leads to inflammation in the brain and body, which can lead to heart disease, autoimmune disease, depression, anxiety or PTSD, if it is not addressed. This adverse stress does not only affect the child in the hospital, but also everyone around them. 

ITK seeks to disrupt the effects of medical trauma in children and their families due to hospitalizations and medical crises. We do this through the delivery of a compassionate intervention, bringing integrative healing therapies to children and their families wherever they are. 100% of the ITK patient satisfaction scores reported in the last quarter of 2019 said that they would definitely recommend the hospital based on their Integrative Touch session.

ITK intends to create a shift of mindset in the healthcare system, moving from a prescriptive approach to a family-centered, compassionate care approach that personalizes care to each family’s needs.

Currently, we are serving about 3,000 individuals this year through our Hospital and TeleHealth Programs. In one year, we intend to increase the number served by 1000 people. In five years we expect our programs to grow to serve 10,000 or more individuals annually.

With the recent changes with COVID-19, ITK has had to pivot our program delivery method from in-person and in the hospital to Telehealth. We received praise from the Washington Post and the Arizona Daily Star for our efforts in 2020. In the next year, we plan to continue to adapt and improve this new Telehealth model with input from patients, volunteers, and medical staff. This will allow us to enhance the healing we deliver to children and families nationally. We are also working on expanding and enhancing our hospital program to other children's hospitals. This includes developing the Integrative Touch educational platform to launch training for practitioners, solidifying and expanding our partnership with Banner Children’s Hospital (the 5th largest healthcare provider in the US), and creating marketing materials to expand awareness about our program.

In the next 5 years, we plan to open a Healing Center in Southern Arizona where we can provide a space for families to receive ongoing services after leaving the hospital, provide ongoing education, and create a healing community for families. This exciting goal will allow us to expand our reach significantly and offer healing to many more children and families in need. It will also become the home for 'ITK University" where we can host Integrative Touch Therapy trainings for providers in children's hospitals across the country, and one day...around the world!

Because ITK offers all of our programs and services for free to children and families, we rely on donations, grants, and corporate sponsors to financially support us. Additionally, we rely on a network of over 450 specialized and general volunteers that provide more than 10,000 hours of work annually to ITK. One of our main goals is expansion of our programs and services across the country. To this end, we must expand our revenue to financially support these programs. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, we shifted much of our programming to be provided virtually. Our partnerships with various local clinics, health care centers, and hospitals have been cancelled temporarily, as well as one of our largest events. This is costing our organization thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Although our staff and board have created a COVID-19 plan which includes dynamic, real time changes, we are inevitably experiencing the challenge of economic uncertainty due to the pandemic. Because our proprietary therapeutic approach, Integrative Touch Therapy, is a hands on treatment for medically fragile children, it will take some time for us to be able to return to providing in person care in hospitals. 

Additionally, within the next five years we will launch a capital campaign to raise funds to open our Healing Center. This may prove challenging if we are in a recession. ITK has a fantastic opportunity to fill a gap in healthcare, but we can’t do that without the financial support necessary to maintain and grow our programs.

ITK has a strong and dedicated community of volunteers and donors, as well as a passionate and committed Board of Directors. To address changes and challenges due to the pandemic, we have shifted our current program model to be virtual. We created our TeleHealth Programs, which consists of two programs: The TeleFriend Program pairs an adult and a young person together to be friends with a hospitalized child in a time of need. The TeleWellness Program pairs a team of professional healers with hospitalized patients and their families to offer wellness tools for managing stress, pain, and anxiety. We are also working on a new agreement with the hospital to fund an ITK program for 125 ICU nurses who are struggling greatly during COVID-19. We will provide wellness education and personalized TeleWellness sessions for essential staff. 

ITK launched a new podcast called Conversations on Healing to spotlight integrative physicians and healers from around the country and increase ITK's national reach. As CEO, I accepted a Health Advisory Board position with Whole Health ED to support mindfulness education in K-12 schools across the US. Our Board is working with our existing donor base to ask for support during this difficult time to provide resources. We continue to draw on our community of volunteers who span many different professions, and we are strengthening our partnerships with local organizations and healthcare facilities. Our volunteers are hard at work seeking new grant and partnership opportunities both within our Tucson community and around the country. 

Since ITK’s inception we have partnered with many local and national entities to carry out our mission. This includes the physicians, nurses, Child Life Specialists and senior leadership at Banner Health. We work with the medical team at the hospital to provide Integrative Touch therapy sessions to children and families. We also provide integrative therapies to hospital staff at our monthly Care for the Caregivers events. ITK has been working with Banner Children’s Hospital since the inception of the Integrative Touch Hospital Program in 2014. ITK also partners with the Children’s Clinics for Rehabilitative Services (CCRS) on the Tucson Medical Center Campus to provide our Healing Retreats and Palliative Care Clinic. The Children's Clinics is the largest organization in Southern Arizona serving low income families with kids with complex medical needs. ITK provides services at the Palliative Care Clinic at CCRS, which is the first free-standing palliative care clinic in the United States. We provide Integrative Touch Therapy and wellness resources to children on their end of life journey. We work with Intuition Wellness Center in Tucson to provide our valuable Community Clinics. These clinics are held monthly and are open to anyone who is in need of healing services - free of charge. ITK is developing a new relationship with Whole Health ED to spread mindfulness in schools. As CEO, I collaborate with Protected Tomorrows in Illinois, 1440 Multiversity in California, and am a featured speaker at several medical conferences, including Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, held this August.

At Integrative Touch for Kids, we provide integrative healing therapies to children with special medical needs and their families and develop supportive communities. Integrative Touch Therapy is a team based approach drawn from therapies such as Healing Touch, gentle massage, meditation, breath work, acupressure, and other modalities. In addition, we provide connection, healing, peace, happiness, wellness, and so many other things to everyone we work with: our patients, their families, physicians, volunteers, and staff. As the mother of a young patient said: “Wow, what a wonderful program. You have no idea how hard it is to spend weeks and weeks in the hospital with a sick child. We have been inpatient for 31 days and had ITK visit us last week. What a wonderful experience. As a Mom I have been carrying so much stress...For my son it was a nice calming experience...Thank you so much. We hope we can get another visit soon.” Our product is Integrative Touch Therapy and our model is called “Health-Caring,” bringing care and compassion to the bedside. Our patients often have experienced medical trauma from treatments, and our integrative therapies augment their healing and address the trauma as well, leading to more robust and meaningful healing outcomes. 

Our innovative volunteer model requires training and experience based education for junior and general volunteers. This education and exposure builds compassion skills and augments volunteers' understanding of disabilities in our community, which serves to break down barriers of social isolation for families with kids with medical needs. 

Our primary income currently comes from individual donations, fundraising events and grants. We have a dedicated committee of volunteers that seek out and apply for grants to draw in funding for our programs. ITK has a volunteer Gala Committee and holds an annual fundraising event called the Butterfly Gala every spring. This event includes a silent auction, dinner, awards, and dancing, and brings in approximately $250,000 dollars each year to support our programs. ITK gathers funds through product sales of our essential oils line called Healing Blends and from the sale of other ITK merchandise. Looking towards future financial sustainability, we have partnered with the MBA program at the University of Arizona to develop the business plan for our Healing Center. They are helping us to create a financially sustainable model that will support our children and families in the long term. We will be launching a capital campaign for this project and are looking to raise $5 million dollars for the building. The center will create a revenue stream by working with insurance companies for service reimbursement and providing training courses centered around our unique and groundbreaking Integrative Touch Therapy. These revenue sources will be long-lasting and sustainable. In addition to these initiatives, we plan to seek out new major gifts and individual donors and maintain our current donor base. Furthermore, we plan to extend our reach into the 230+ children's hospitals in the US via Telehealth and inpatient services. This cultivated expansion will substantially increase our funding base.

We apply for many grants throughout any given year and receive many individual donations. Below are some of the most recent grants and donations we have received:

Banner Health Community Giving (Banner University Medical Center- $30,000

CORE Grant (Community Foundation for Southern Arizona) - $30,000

Individual Donor - $17,215

Arizona Local Impact Fund - $15,000

Individual Donor - $10,010

Jack and Goldie Miller Family Foundation Grant - $10,000

The Morris A. Hazan Family Foundation Grant - $10,000

Individual Donor - $10,000

Individual Donor - $10,000

Individual Donor - $7,979

Individual Donor - $7,200

Individual Donor - $7,055

Individual Donor - $6,082.50

Biltmore Studios - $6,000

Individual Donor - $5,630

Individual Donor - $5,600

Individual Donor - $5,530

Arizona Community Foundation of Cochise County - $5,000

Raymond and Margaret Vicker Charitable Trust - $5,000

Rancho Rossa Vineyards and Rescued Hearts Cellars - $4,920

Individual Donor - $4,648

Individual Donor - $4,000

Tucson Lifestyle Magazine - $3,687

Elizabeth Read Taylor Foundation - $3,500

Individual Donor - $3,328

Individual Donor - $3,167

Individual Donor - $3,025

Individual Donor - $3,005

Individual Donor - $3,000

Individual Donor - $3,000

Individual Donor - $2,920

Individual Donor - $2,855

Individual Donor - $2,815

ARBICO/Organics - $2,800

Individual Donor - $2,625

Individual Donor - $2,570

Cox Communication - $2,500

Intuit - $2,500

Long Realty Cares Foundation - $2,500

Pathways School - $2,500

Rail X Ranch - $2,500

Raskob Kambourian Financial Advisors, Ltd. - $2,500

Integrative Touch for Kids seeks to raise funds in the form of grants and donations for our project in the total amount of $300,000 for this fiscal year. This will cover the majority of the expenses for our new Telehealth programs, as well as any short term deficits we face due to COVID-19. We intend to raise this money by December, 2020.

Our total estimated expenses for 2020 are $631,000.

Integrative Touch for Kids is applying for the Elevate prize for a number of reasons. First of all, we need seed money to grow our innovative and highly successful programs. Some of the barriers we currently face are financial, and this critical financial support would mean we could leverage our Telehealth program to serve far more children and families nationally, as well as improve and adapt our hospital programs for this new world we are all living in - including supporting vulnerable ICU nurses and front line healthcare workers. We are excited about the potential for connecting with a network of people who have expertise in non-profit growth and professional development. We are always seeking ways to improve our model and looking for partners to form mutual relationships with to advance our mission of helping people heal. As our programs grow, we need our marketing and awareness building efforts to grow at the same time. We look forward to the opportunity to grow into children's hospitals all over the country and the Elevate Prize could help turn this into a reality. Our Telehealth Programs were recently featured in a Washington Post article, and as a result, a major TV network contacted us because they are interested in filming our work for the flagship show for their network. Opportunities like this will be game changers and will support the relationship with Elevate to spread valuable awareness for our organization and our incredibly important and profound work for children and families. 

Partnership is at the very core of Integrative Touch for Kids’ work. We are always seeking partners to help us grow our reach and serve more children and families in a number of ways. ITK’s collaborative partners enhance our program’s ability to meet the community’s needs. Since collaboration has always been the cornerstone of ITK’s work, we are continuously developing new relationships to provide perspective and help us enhance, deepen, and expand our work. Since we are having to shift our model of care and all of our programming to being completely virtual, at least temporarily, we could benefit from partnerships that support us in 1) Finding new revenue opportunities we may not have considered 2) Critically evaluating our new programs for efficacy and outcomes, and 3) Marketing our new programs and gaining high level awareness for the important role we are playing for medically fragile children nationally. 

We would like to incrementally expand our reach throughout the Banner Health System, given that they are the 5th largest healthcare provider in the US. We would also like to extend our reach into all 230+ children's hospitals nationally through the delivery of our unique Telehealth and Integrative Touch Therapy programs, with a primary focus on academic medical institutions.