The InTouch TeleWellness Program

Our healthcare system places a burden on caregivers caring for those that need help the most, namely children facing severe medical conditions.  Since the pandemic began, one in five nurses have left the profession, and the suicide rate of frontline hospital workers is double that of the general population. This problem is endemic to the United States, and disproportionately falls on women and low income families.

Integrative Touch is focused on transforming how children, families, and caregivers experience healthcare. The InTouch TeleWellness program is designed to provide support to caregivers when they need it most. In this 10 week, we teach parents and caregivers how to care for themselves. Each week, the recipient meets with two of our InTouch Therapists for 90 minutes, during that time they cover a variety of topics, from regulating your nervous system, to how movement and breath can dramatically help reduce pain and anxiety. This is an intensive program tailored to each individual that passes through it, with the sole intention of creating long term positive change in that person's life, as a result, we've seen incredible outcomes.

The InTouch TeleWellness program is focused on serving parents and caregivers of kids facing severe medical conditions whom we help through our other programs. These caregivers, in addition to front line hospital workers make up our target population for the simple reason that they provide tremendous support for others and are underserved themselves. Recipients of our 10 week TeleWellness program report 87% decrease in anxiety, a 73% decrease in pain, and a 94% increase in well-being from week 1 to 10. This is a direct result of our unique therapeutic approach and a reflection of our mission to transform how people experience health and healing through a unique Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community wellness model. All of our programs are based on this model.

Prior to the pandemic, Integrative Touch was the de  facto leader in pediatric integrative medicine (IM). We created & ran the largest pediatric IM retreats in the country for more than 12 years & have the most comprehensive pediatric IM hospital program. We accomplished that by listening deeply to those we serve. That's what we mean when we say we serve the Whole Child, the Whole Family, and the Whole Community. While we literally enroll members of an entire family into our programs, the heart of Integrative Touch and the genius of our program design lies in listening to what those in need need. This is also why Integrative Touch believes in continuous improvement. We collect a lot of data regarding the efficacy and satisfaction of our programs to make sure we're creating the change and giving the support to those who need it. 95% of our surveyed program recipients report at least an 8/10 in satisfaction, with 86% reporting a 10/10 in program satisfaction.

Integrative Touch is seeking funds to grow our innovative and highly successful programs in order to meet demand. 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 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.

The goal of InTouch’s work is to enable a practice change in community based pediatric healthcare. The current healthcare system uses a prescriptive treatment model, whereas InTouch 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. InTouch  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. Integrative Touch has developed and launched the largest pediatric integrative medicine retreats in the country and successfully run them for more than 12 years, as well as the first ever Integrative Touch Hospital program at Banner Children’s Hospital that has been operational since 2014. InTouch's Founder has 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. InTouch 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.

Integrative Touch's contribution to transforming the way kids, families, and caregivers experience healthcare goes beyond the programs themselves. InTouch is geared to make systemic change, which is best achieved when approaching the problem from various angles. InTouch is a thought leader in the space, and their podcast, Conversations on Healing, is downloaded in over 100 countries and is an example of how InTouch is bringing broader positive impacts to the space. 

Our strategic imperatives for the next 3-5 years are as follows.

Strategic Imperative #1: Determine strategy and execute hybrid model of care for current Hospital and TeleHealth programs. 

- In response to Covid, InTouch created two new, hugely successful programs. Now that we're returning to our Hospital program to meet kids and families where they need us, we need additional resources and infrastructure to provide both the Hospital and TeleHealth programs to even more people while maintaining the same focus on quality that is vital for long term positive change. InTouch is working on expanding these programs, and stabilizing them at scale to ensure that our growth comes second to the efficacy of our programs.

Strategic Imperative #2: Further establish Integrative Touch as a Thought Leader and increase brand recognition.

- Increasing our visibility to the general public is an important part of InTouch's future. We want to be able to provide our programs to as many people as possible. Having community members be aware of the incredible work we do will serve us in multiple ways. Additionally, Shay Beider, the founder and executive director is currently writing the book on Integrative Touch TherapyTM. InTouch is also working on a curriculum to train additional InTouch Therapists so that more people can experience our work first hand.

Strategic Imperative #3: Create a Community Healing Center

- Integrative Touch plans 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 'InTouch University" where we can host Integrative Touch Therapy trainings for providers in children's hospitals across the country, and one day...around the world! We've already hosted several community meetings to identify community needs and to ensure we're building out the space and the program with their needs at the center of it all. A prototype will be in operation by midyear 2022.

Integrative Touch has a 3 year plan breaking these strategic imperatives into smaller Objectives and a series of Tasks needed to achieve them, all of which is mapped out with a timeline for what needs to be done and by when, in order to move Integrative Touch forward. Our Philanthropy and Business Operations Manager manages this on a weekly basis alongside our Executive Director. Additionally, our Board of Directors reviews high level items each month to ensure InTouch is in a good position to achieve these goals. The Board will routinely offer their expertise and time where needed to ensure the InTouch staff has everything necessary to serve more people through hour programs. For example, Integrative Touch rebranded earlier this year, changing our name from "Integrative Touch for Kids" (ITK) to "Integrative Touch" (InTouch). Managing this campaign and rollout was vital to get right. Below is an excerpt from our Business Growth Plan and Tracker.

Manage the rebranding process and rollout:
1. (Due Q4 2021) Develop plan to change over all materials internally and externally to the new branding. - Complete
2. (Due Q4 2021) Create a marketing and communication plan around the rebrand. - Complete
3. (Due Q1 2022) Determine new name and when marketing plan will launch. - Complete
4. (Due Q1 2022) Launch marketing campaign. - Complete
5. (Due Q1 2022)  Ensure all materials, internally and externally are on the new branding schema. - Complete
6. (Ongoing) Support ongoing rebranding efforts to ensure there isn't a loss of brand recognition with our supporters or the communities at large - Ongoing and as necessary.

As you can see in the above example, we have a highly thought out and trackable roadmap for how to grow Integrative Touch to reach tens of thousands of people in need in the coming years.

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. 

Integrative Touch 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 InTouch patient satisfaction scores reported in the last quarter of 2019 said that they would definitely recommend the hospital based on their Integrative Touch session. That was the last quarter in which InTouch operated within hospitals. Our TeleHealth programs have also seen high satisfaction scores, 95% of people surveyed rated satisfaction of at least 8/10, and 86% of those surveyed reported a satisfaction of 10/10.

InTouch 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.

Integrative Touch delivers both of it's TeleWellness programs online over Zoom. 

The TeleFriend Program pairs an adult and a young person to be friends with a child who is hospitalized or isolated at home. The Buddy Team talks, plays games, read stories, and spend time with kids in need. 

The TeleWellness Program pairs a team of professional healers with hospitalized patients, healthcare workers and families with kids with complex medical needs at home. The healing team offers therapeutic techniques and wellness skills for managing stress, pain, and anxiety. These programs are available to children and families nationally.

Through video chat, we were able to continue to serve families that came to rely on our services to reduce pain and anxiety. When the pandemic hit, we could no longer walk through a hospital door to treat a patient. So we built a new door, a new way to reach the people facing severe medical needs, and their caregivers. Not only did we continue to serve people in this way, we were able to expand our focus. Giving more attention and care to caregivers and front line hospital workers, many of whom were overwhelmed and under resourced prior to the pandemic that has made things increasingly difficult for them. Through technology and program design, we helped more people in more ways during the pandemic.

Integrative Touch seeks to look like those we serve, which means growing the diversity of the organization, from employees and volunteers to board of directors. The best way to reach more people and to expand our foundation is to make meaningful relationships with experts from diverse backgrounds. This is why InTouch has actively sought out more people from diverse backgrounds to join our organization. Our Board of Directors is majority female. The staff is 20% Hispanic or LatinX and 80% female. Collectively, the team is highly effective because of their advanced skills in their respective areas, personal humility, & a clear desire to advance the mission. The team is made up of resilient people from diverse backgrounds who exemplify grit, perseverance, & a growth mindset.

Our mission is to change the way people experience health and healing through a unique “Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community” wellness model. Our Vision is to break down social barriers and engage communities in support of families struggling with special medical needs, improving the quality of life for all. Integrative Touch’s purpose is to enhance well-being, minimize suffering and facilitate healing for families with children with developmental disabilities, genetic conditions, cancers, and other chronic, acute, and life limiting illnesses and the greater community. 

We accomplish this through our “Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community” wellness model. That means meeting people where they are to provide services, which we do through our various programs. We provide Integrative Touch Therapy directly to hospital patients, families and staff within Banner Hospital in Arizona. We serve kids facing severe medical conditions and the isolation that too often accompanies it, through our TeleFriend program. We also reach parents and care-givers through our TeleHealth program, giving them tools to thrive in the long term.

There is tremendous demand for our programs because they are designed to transform lives. We could serve 10x the people we do if we shortened our TeleHealth program to 1 week from 10. But you don't see an 87% decrease in anxiety in a 1 week program. Our programs are designed to truly help people, and that takes time, and human connection, which is what makes InTouch so unique.

Integrative Touch has continued to grow over the past 16 years of operation. However, our past three years were our best three years in terms of dollars raised. This is because people understand the uniqueness of our programs and our organization. As a result, we've grown our budget by 10%+ over the past 3 years, each year. We've done this through establishing a grants team, taking in data to better understand how to write grants and we carefully research Foundations and Organizations to apply to so that we know we're a good fit for each other. We've also sought partnerships in our community to increase sustained donations. We leverage these partnerships during our largest annual fundraiser in March, end of year giving, and volunteerism.

Finally, we're going to begin offering extensive trainings in Integrative Touch Therapy in 2023, this will not only expand our brand and result in more kids, families and care-givers getting the care they deserve, it will also create a new revenue stream for Integrative Touch.

Integrative Touch held its largest fundraising event of the year on 3/26/22. It was a virtual event *The InTouch Tonight Show" and it was a tremendous success, bringing in approximately 25% of this year's budget. 

We've also had great success on our Grants team recently. We were awarded $30,000 from the prestigious Christopher and Dana Reeves Foundation, and more recently were awarded $40,000 from an organization within AZ, though we cannot make that announcement until May 1st of this year. Prior to that, we were awarded $50,000 from the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation

Integrative Touch is in a strong financial and programmatic position for growth, it's only a matter of how soon can we rapidly increase the number of people we serve. We firmly believe, and our program outcomes show that Integrative Touch changes lives for the better and in dramatic ways.