Alzheimer’s

A special cart containing items to soothe, maintain and stimulate Alzheimer’s patients is made available for use by all patients at Southeast Missouri Hospital dealing with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.  These items are sent home with the patient upon discharge.

Turning Point
Turning Point is a program for anyone diagnosed with breast cancer within the past year.  Turning Point sessions are held in the spring and in the fall at HealthPoint Plaza.  Weekly program topics cover motivation, journaling, benefits of exercise, preventing lymphedema, healthy cooking, nutritional assessment, energy conservation, spirituality, emotions surrounding breast cancer and healing and looking good and feeling better.

 Participants receive a six-month membership to HealthPoint Fitness and a Personal Fitness Assessment with an appropriate exercise prescription.  The series is offered free of charge thanks to funding from the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation.

Bosom Buddies
This support group is for any woman who is dealing with or has had breast cancer. It meets the first Tuesday of every month from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at Southeast Missouri Hospital's HealthPoint Plaza.  This group was developed by women who participated in the Turning Point support program. Bosom Buddies meetings are opportunities to share feelings and experiences as well as information.

Facilitators include a nurse working in Southeast Missouri Hospital’s Regional Cancer Center and a counselor or social worker.  The facilitators answer questions pertaining to treatments.

We Can Weekend
This unique annual retreat for cancer patients and families offers help in coping with and understanding cancer and its influence on family life.   At the Sunnen Center along the edge of scenic Sunnen Lake at the YMCA of the Ozarks, volunteer counselors and highly qualified professionals encourage the free-flowing exchange of feelings, ideas and solutions. The weekend offers family social activities, discussion groups, and recreational activities.  The schedule of events includes free time, rest periods and an all-faith worship service on Sunday morning.  Special activities for children and teens are provided at no charge.  Sessions also are offered to help families with stress management and coping techniques. We Can Weekend is offered at no charge to participants through the generous support of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

Cancer Symposium
This annual fall educational seminar offers on-going educational opportunities for physicians, nursing staff, medical students and other allied healthcare providers. Objectives include the latest updates in cancer care.

Cancer Update
This annual educational seminar focuses on the nurse’s role in the diagnosis, treatment and care of cancer patients.  This seminar is appropriate for hospital staff nurses, doctors’ office staff, home health agency nurses, community nurses, discharge planners, hospice nurses and student nurses.  

Building Blocks
This program, a free prenatal early childhood home visitation service for low-income, first-time mothers, is designed to help improve the ability to cope with and build a strong parental relationship between mother and child.  Visiting nurses from Southeast Home Health, a service of Southeast Missouri Hospital, help mothers by providing nutrition education, discussing preparation for labor and delivery, options for feeding the baby, parenting hints and tips and education about infant growth and development.

The goal of Building Blocks is to help mothers and babies have the best health possible and to assist the mothers in finding family and community resources.

Camp Super Nova
This two-day camp for school-age children with special physical or developmental limitations includes the fun and activities of other day camps with modifications.   Activities are designed for children who are emotionally or mentally challenged or who deal with conditions such as Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.   The day camp is designed to challenge bodies and stimulate smiles.  Activities include archery, bowling, parachute games, snack creation, swimming, fishing, crafts and field trips.

Kids Bee Fit
Health education and exercise instruction are provided by Southeast Missouri Hospital’s Wellness Center staff.  Children, ages 2-6, play musical games, dance and have fun while learning fitness basics.  Classes meet in the Kids Bee Fit Room at West Park Mall.

Safe Kids Coalition
Reducing childhood injuries and deaths through public awareness, education and community action is the primary goal of the Safe Kids Coalition. Safe Kids works to organize and present child passenger safety checkpoints, BikeSmart and water and fire safety events throughout the year.  Other programs include those that highlight safety equipment and hands-on education of parents and children of bike, motor vehicle, fire and home and water safety.  Safe Kids provides car seats to those who need but can not afford them. 

The Cape Girardeau Area Safe Kids Coalition serves the Missouri counties of Butler, Stoddard, Perry, Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, Scott, Pemiscot, Wayne, Bollinger, Ste. Genevieve and New Madrid.

Traci Taylor’s Toy Train
In her own fight against childhood cancer, Traci Taylor spent many long days in the hospital with little to do.  Traci was inspired to create a toy train filled with toys to give other children something to do during their hospital stay.  With help from her parents, Traci created Traci Taylor’s Toy Train.  It is stocked with donated toys, books, puzzles, craft kits and games for all pediatric patients to enjoy while at Southeast and then take home.  The Toy Train is taken once a week to each room on the Pediatric Unit for children to choose an item to enjoy and make their stay at Southeast Missouri Hospital more pleasant.  Traci passed away but her legacy lives on in the Toy Train.

Toys for Kids
Children who need special rehabilitation for illness and injury utilize special equipment and toys.  Therapeutic and rehabilitation toys and equipment are vital to a child’s recovery from an illness or injury. 

Way to Go Kids
Way to Go Kids helps school-age children learn the importance of exercise and nutrition for a healthy lifestyle and prevention of type II diabetes.  Southeast Wellness employees and a Southeast Missouri Hospital dietitian provide a two-hour, after-school program once a week for eight weeks.  

The SHARE (Source of Helping, Airing and Resolving Experiences) program lends support, comfort and counseling to those families who suffer the loss of a child through miscarriage, neonatal death or stillbirth.  Members can share experiences, thoughts and feelings at support group meetings. SHARE helps parents gain insight and understanding of their own loss and allows them to reach out to the newly-bereaved.  Though SHAREis non-denominational, individuals may express their religious feelings, attitudes or experiences in group discussion.

Commemorative Brick Garden

 The Foundation Commemorative Brick Program offers the opportunity to add a donor’s name or that of a loved one engraved upon a brick in the Southeast Missouri Hospital Commemorative Brick Garden. Donations can be made in memory of loved ones or in honor of an individual or individuals. Commemorative bricks will be placed in the Foundation’s Commemorative Garden adjacent to the Hospital Lobby or in an appropriately designated Hospital area.

The Southeast Missouri Hospital Diabetes Center is located at 60 Doctors’ Park in Cape Girardeau. The purpose of the Center is to help patients live well with diabetes by providing them with comprehensive diabetes self-management education. The Center focuses on the management of patients with type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes. With its patient-centered, team care using an evidence-based, proven curriculum, patients find the keys to excellent diabetes management.

Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic in conjunction with SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.

Telephone Lifestyle Counseling
This service provides telephone counseling with a member of the Diabetes Center staff, answering diabetes-related questions and providing resource information.

Financial Assistance Fund
Diabetes often leads to unplanned financial demands.  Supplies such as emergency medications, medic alert bracelets, storage pouches and other needs specific to diabetes care are provided through the Financial Assistance Fund to those in need.

Camp DAY Break (Diabetes and Youth)
This is a unique two-day summer camp for children, ages 6 through 12, who have juvenile diabetes. It combines traditional camping fun with beneficial educational sessions about growing up with diabetes. It increases participants’ knowledge and skills to better control the disease.  All camp activities, such as crafts and recreational events, are under the supervision of health professionals from Southeast Missouri Hospital.  Qualified professional staff directs all food preparation, diet supervision and nutrition education services.
 
Support for Patients and Families
A workshop for grandparents and/or caregivers provides basic survival skills in managing diabetes care. Resources and tools are available to learn about insulin-dependent (Type 1) diabetes.  A variety of topics are covered such as blood glucose control, importance of timing of food and snacks, label reading, and what to do during an emergency.  The Grandparent/Caregiver Workshop teaches participants how to create a comfortable and educated atmosphere for their grandchildren.

Training for School Systems and Day Care Facilities
The Diabetes Center’s staff provides diabetes information, training, and a wide variety of reference materials to schools and childcare centers in Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties.

Employees are the most vital resource of Southeast Missouri Hospital.  A financial crisis can happen at any time to any person.  Long-term and terminal illnesses, death of a family member and family breakups can and do create financial hardships, which can affect work performance.  At such times, the emergency fund, administered in a confidential manner and funded by donations from colleagues, friends and family, enables recipients to retain their dignity in the midst of hardship as well as to realize that their significant contributions to Southeast are being recognized.  At the same time, donors experience the satisfaction of helping to bridge the financial gap for their colleagues until other assistance can be identified.

Support is provided through the generosity of Southeast Missouri Hospital employees and the efforts of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation.

Southeast Missouri Hospital has teamed up with the Boy Scouts Explorer Program to offer young men and women, ages 14 to 21, the opportunity to explore the many career options available in healthcare.  The group meets the first and third Tuesday of the month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Hospital.  Group members receive training in various aspects of hospital careers and operations as well as work on projects related to the health services field.Home

Health/Hospice 

C.O.O.L. Camp (Children Overcoming Outstanding Loss)
Losing a parent, sibling or friend is difficult for anyone.  But for a child it can be one of the most difficult experiences of their young lives.  It’s not that their feelings are so much different from those of adults who have experienced a loss; kids just don’t have the experience or understanding to cope with the array of feelings that they encounter when death touches their lives.  Children need the support and guidance of adults to help them through their grieving experiences in a healthy way.

Hospice

Since 1986, when Southeast Missouri Hospital introduced the concept of Hospice care to Southeast Missouri, thousands of terminally ill patients and their families have been provided loving, caring support.  Southeast Hospice currently serves these Southeast Missouri counties:  Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Scott and portions of Perry, Stoddard, Mississippi and New Madrid counties.

Medicare-certified since 1993, Southeast Hospice is the area’s only hospice accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

At the heart of Southeast Hospice is its family-centered approach to care.  The family as a whole is involved in the patient’s care with support from the 24-member professional staff of Southeast Hospice as well as other departments at the Hospital.  Nursing care is provided by Hospice staff nurses and nursing assistants.  Pastoral care and a 13-month bereavement support and counseling program are additional services available to hospice patients.  Acting as a resource to the Hospice team are the Hospice Medical Director and the patient’s primary physician.

Southeast Hospice has served patients ranging in age from 2 weeks to 104 years.  In addition to its home care services, Southeast Hospice also works with many area nursing homes to provide Hospice care in that setting.

An integral part of Southeast Hospice is its dedicated volunteer force, men and women who reside in communities within Hospice’s service region and who have completed an intensive 20-hour training program.  Hospice volunteers come from all walks of life, but all share a sincere, deep interest in others.

Nursing/Nursing Education 

OB & Nursery
Education services, lactation education and equipment, mother-baby home visits, equipment for the OB and Nursery including neonatal intensive care, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome education for parents, and funding for OB and Nursery renovations have all been provided through the help of the Foundation.

Lactation Services
Since its inception in 2000, Southeast Hospital Lactation Services has been helping new mothers and infants by giving them the support they need. This is accomplished by educating all new mothers about how to feed their newborns as well as support after discharge.  Five registered nurses who are certified lactation consultants assist the OB nursing staff by visiting each patient daily with special attention given to discharge information.  A 24-hour support line is manned by lactation consultants. Many mothers need hospital-grade electric breast pumps but can’t afford the rental or purchase cost.  The loaner pump program was developed to meet this need.  Through the help of the Foundation, there are now 20 hospital-grade electric pumps for loan. They have helped more than 300 families.  The success of this program is also measured by the increasing breastfeeding initiation rate of 50% in 2000 to over 70% in 2007 at Southeast. Patients often state that this program is why they deliver their children here and why they would recommend Southeast to their friends.

Nursing Camps
This program introduces healthcare nursing careers to high school students in our community. The camps are designed to address the region’s growing need for nurses and the many career opportunities this vital profession offers. 

The camp program combines the excitement of being a part of the Southeast Missouri Hospital nursing team with group instruction, ethics discussions, fitness and wellness activities and fun social events.  Students observe surgery procedures, Emergency Services activities and the birth of a baby as well as follow nursing staff as they administer care to patients.   This program offers two separate camps for boys and girls. 

Nursing Education and Seminars
The Foundation supports nursing education programs and seminars that allow nurses to learn the latest and most up to date information in healthcare.

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Endowment
The proceeds from the endowment for the Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health Sciences are used for the capital needs of the College.

Sim Man
A life-sized, electronic, educational manikin was provided for training purposes to build nursing skills. Sim Man was purchased in 2005 through the Foundation and the generosity of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary.

General Patient Care
Funds are available for medications, transportation and treatments for those patients who do not have insurance or governmental support for such needs.

Health and Safety Fairs
A variety of fairs are conducted throughout the year focusing on health and safety education for professionals and the general public.

Meals on Wheels
Southeast Missouri Hospital provides nutritional noon meals delivered to anyone within the city of Cape Girardeau who is unable to prepare a meal or has no one else to do so. Funding is provided for those who can’t afford the nominal fee of $2.25 per meal.  Admission to the program is by physician referral so that the appropriate diet is prepared for each participant. 

Southeast Missouri Hospital has a number of fine scholarship opportunities, funded by the Foundation and the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary, available for those who wish to further their healthcare education.  Through the generosity of many individuals, Southeast Missouri Hospital has one of the largest, most comprehensive scholarship programs in the Midwest.

Foundation Scholarships

Hazel Harrison Strickler Scholarship
Hazel Harrison Strickler of Cape Girardeau died on her 94th birthday on November 10, 1981. Through a bequest from her estate, the Hazel Harrison Strickler Scholarship Fund was established. She and other members of her family were longtime supporters of Southeast Missouri Hospital. She also was active in the Hospital Auxiliary for many years. The scholarships are offered for registered, licensed practical and graduate nursing students pursuing studies at educational institutions in Cape Girardeau. Students do not need to be Southeast Missouri Hospital employees to qualify.

O.D. Niswonger Scholarship
The O.D. Niswonger Scholarship was established by the Southeast Missouri Hospital Board of Trustees to honor Mr. Niswonger, Southeast Administrator for 14 years. He retired in 1991 after a 30-year career at the Hospital. Scholarships are available for the education of Southeast Missouri Hospital full-time or part-time employees who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in any health science field.

Dorothy Kies Penzel Scholarship
Through the generosity of Dorothy Kies Penze’s daughters, Georganne Penzel Syler and Carolyn Penzel Ford Bock, a scholarship was established in April 1999 for medical technology students at the Southeast Missouri College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The late Mrs. Penzel was a medical technologist.

William A. and Martina Scott Scholarship
In 2000, William A. and Martina K. Scott donated property at Puxico, MO, appraised at $83,000, to the Hospital Foundation. The property was sold for $50,000 in March 2001, and the proceeds used to establish the William A. and Martina K. Scott Scholarship Fund.
Martina Scott restricted this scholarship to students enrolled in an allied health program.

Leona Trimble Scholarship
Leona Revelle Trimble began her career in nursing at Southeast Missouri Hospital in the 1930s after attending the Southeast Missouri Hospital Diploma Nursing School. She maintained an interest in the nursing profession throughout her lifetime. Through the generous support of Brenda Faris, this nursing scholarship was funded in honor of her aunt, Leona Trimble. A gift of $2,500 was made to fund one $500 scholarship to be given out annually for five years. The recipients are nursing students enrolled in the Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing program and chosen by the Southeast Missouri Hospital Scholarship Committee.

Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society Alliance Scholarship
The Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society Alliance has supported nursing education since the group was organized in 1924. In September 2005, the Alliance made a gift to establish a $10,000 endowment for scholarships to be awarded to nursing students enrolled in the Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The purpose of this endowed scholarship is to perpetuate the past commitment in a way that will directly impact the health of the Cape Girardeau County area in the future.

Help us prepare for the future. Click here for a printable Gift Form (PDF)