Hope House Day Care Gives Hope for Children Dealing with HIV/AIDS

Hope House is a non-profit organization in Memphis that offers support services to children infected or affected by the HIV/AIDS virus. These services are limited to children between the ages of six weeks to six years of age. This organization was founded in 1994 by the Junior League of Memphis in order to deal with the medical, psychological, educational, and social issues associated with HIV and AIDS.

Day Care is provided to the children in the Hope House programs who are affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. This daycare is a way for these small children to not only be emotionally supported by their environment of other children with the same issues, but to begin the education that they will need to learn to live with the conditions that come with HIV/AIDS.

Twenty-four hour emergency care is available when parents must go to the hospital or are too sick to care for their children all day. This relief for the parents is important to the health of both parent and child. HIV/AIDS is exacerbated by stress because stress eats the T-cells that HIV attacks.

Developmental screening is provided by Hope House. This is extremely important because HIV brings developmental problems for 90% of the children it affects. The developmental screening provided by Hope House helps to predict and preemptively deal with any problems the child may face.

There is a licensed practical nurse on duty while the children are in daycare in case of an emergency, and the staff works closely with the child's doctors to promote healthy living.

Play therapy is provided to the children to help ease the emotional turmoil that HIV/AIDS causes for those infected with or affected by the disease. Agency referrals are conducted by the staff at Hope House to provide a network of support for the HIV/AIDS families.