p>Jacksonville, Fla. – City leaders and members of the community will help Shands Jacksonville celebrate the opening of the Comprehensive Pediatric Sickle Cell Center at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 22. The center, which is located at 555 West 11th Street on the Shands Jacksonville campus, will provide a wide variety of services to individuals and families living with sickle cell disease all in one location. There is no other dedicated sickle cell center in north or central Florida. The closest one is located in Miami.
Sickle cell disease is a chronic, lifelong disease that predominantly affects African-American children. About one in every 400 black children in the United States inherits sickle cell disease. Upon diagnosis, family members are faced with the long-term challenges associated with caring for children who have a disease that causes anemia, pain and other problems like lung tissue damage and stroke. The blockage of blood flow caused by sickled cells also causes damage to most organs including the spleen, kidneys and liver.
The purpose for opening the new center is to have a facility where all of the services a patient and his or her family need are under one roof, eliminating the need to travel from one place to another. “By offering all of the services in one place and using a multidisciplinary team approach to caring, we can help increase life expectancy and improve quality of life,” says Liz Means, Shands vice president of community relations and education.
Developmental evaluation, intervention and career planning are also a part of the team’s comprehensive care. Remedial education will be provided for children who fall behind in school due to multiple complications of the disease.
Several organizations have partnered with Shands Jacksonville to make these services available to children and families throughout the community–Jacksonville Jaguars, the city of Jacksonville, Children Medical Services, Nemours Children’s Clinic and the Northeast Florida Sickle Cell Foundation. Players for the Jacksonville Jaguars have adopted rooms and donated jerseys, a signed football and other items to the program.
Currently, more than 350 patients are enrolled in the program at both the Shands Jacksonville and Nemours Children’s Clinic locations. The Shands Jacksonville clinic is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. A support group for parents and family members meets at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of every other month.