Medical/nursing care halfway between home and hospital

Key words: Chronic illness, Special care needs, Disability, Respite care, Caregiver

A small but meaningful proportion of Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) presents with quite instable and severe medical conditions. Moreover, they are frequently dependent on technological devices. So, their chances of living in their own homes are seriously problematic. The paper describes “Casa di Gabri”, an innovative structure dedicated to children who temporarily or constantly need strong medical support. It is a special apartment where these children can stay, enjoy a familiar atmosphere and, at the same time, benefit from medical/nursing care. Professional nurses are constantly present in this structure while a paediatrician and an anesthesiologist can always be contacted. Educational and rehabilitative staff offers its collaboration, too. Furthermore, “Casa di Gabri” gives the opportunity to take advantage of short respite care periods that can be very useful for those caregivers and those families that daily bear the burden of assisting a very complex child. Finally, a preliminary economic evaluation demonstrated that structures similar to “Casa di Gabri” could be cost effective and could be useful solutions to reduce avoidable discharge delays among chronic complex patients.