Mitchell's Fund

Mitchell’s Fund seeks to improve the mental well-being of children and families who have experienced trauma. Your donations fund mental health counseling for families with sick children who have a terminal or life-threatening diagnosis in Charlotte, NC. In the past year, Mitchell’s Fund counselors provided more than 300 art, play and talk therapy sessions to sick children and their families to help process the shock of diagnosis, deal with the pain and anxiety of cancer treatment and, in some cases, helped them prepare for the end of life. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network up to 80 percent of children and their families report experiencing traumatic stress following pediatric illness, injury, hospitalization or painful medical procedures. This experience is so common it has a specific term – pediatric medical traumatic stress or PMTS. Between 20 - 30 % of parents and 15 - 25% of children and siblings experience persistent traumatic stress reactions that impair daily functioning and affect treatment adherence and recovery. Medical debt for families experiencing a childhood illness is crippling and the number one detriment to access of mental and physical healthcare is finances. An increasing number of families are put in a situation to delay or forgo quality treatment simply because they cannot afford it. Mitchell's Fund provides counseling services a little or no cost to the family.