Fund Development: Honor Roll of Donors, 2009 - Hartford Hospital!
Fund Development: Honor Roll of Donors, 2009 - Hartford Hospital!
Fund Development: Honor Roll of Donors, 2009 - Hartford Hospital!
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Reynolds’ Gift Bridges Gap<br />
in Pediatric Depression<br />
Rod and Janice Reynolds<br />
at the Institute <strong>of</strong> Living.<br />
photo by Lanny Nagler<br />
“That’s our motivation,<br />
to help create awareness,<br />
enhance clinical services<br />
to treat today’s problems,<br />
and have an impact on<br />
research to discover new<br />
treatments for the<br />
future.”<br />
Rod and Janice Reynolds believe so strongly in the valuable services the Institute <strong>of</strong> Living (IOL)<br />
provides residents <strong>of</strong> all ages in our region that they made a generous gift to bring attention to the<br />
Institute in support <strong>of</strong> programs to benefit children and youth.<br />
They made their gift, a lead gift, to the IOL’s Depression Initiative in the hope that it will benefit<br />
adolescent psychiatry.<br />
“Our focus has always been on children and youth,” said Janice. “What attracted our support<br />
are the many mental health issues with young people today, so many on medications, so many with<br />
emotional problems and so many being diagnosed. These issues seem to be starting at an earlier<br />
age than most people realize.”<br />
Studies indicate that depression is a highly-prevalent disorder that affects 15-20 percent <strong>of</strong><br />
children and teenagers. Yet very little research has attempted to<br />
understand neural dysfunction in pediatric depression, or to<br />
identify biomarkers that predict how well depressed youth<br />
respond to different treatments.<br />
“We live in a society where people don’t hesitate to mention<br />
that their child has a physical ailment and goes to the hospital for<br />
treatment,” added Rod. “On the other hand, they are reluctant to<br />
mention that their child is suffering from and being treated for<br />
depression – and insurance doesn’t treat it very nicely, either.<br />
“That’s our motivation, to help create awareness, enhance<br />
clinical services to treat today’s problems, and have an impact on<br />
research to discover new treatments for the future.”<br />
Janice added, “I think people are more willing to support areas<br />
benefiting people with physical challenges because the pain is<br />
obvious, but they don’t realize that emotional issues also cause<br />
real pain in people’s lives, too.”<br />
Their gift is helping to bridge the knowledge gap in pediatric<br />
depression by integrating the expert clinical services already<br />
<strong>of</strong>fered at the IOL with its cutting-edge neuroscience research<br />
infrastructure.<br />
This integration will establish a research-based clinic for<br />
pediatric mood disorder care by embedding research staff within<br />
existing clinical services and support a series <strong>of</strong> clinically-meaningful studies <strong>of</strong> pediatric depression<br />
using fMRI, genetic and other neuroscience techniques. These projects will evaluate new treatments<br />
and work toward realizing a “personalized medicine” approach to care.<br />
The Reynolds, a local altruistic couple, agreed to share their story as “another way to make a<br />
gift” and encourage others to join this initiative and enable the benefits <strong>of</strong> this initiative to be<br />
even greater.<br />
Giving back to the community is nothing new for the Reynolds. Some years ago, they created a<br />
therapeutic horseback-riding program called Equistrides. At one point, the year-round program<br />
hosted 160 riders a week. The total different disabilities represented by the riders numbered more<br />
than 100.<br />
“We had a lot <strong>of</strong> riders with emotional and cognitive disorders, some sent to us from the IOL,”<br />
noted Janice. “So we got to see a lot <strong>of</strong> different combinations <strong>of</strong> symptoms in children <strong>of</strong> all ages.<br />
We became more aware <strong>of</strong> the large number <strong>of</strong> adolescents needing care, and more aware <strong>of</strong> the<br />
great work being done at the IOL that could help meet those needs.”<br />
Through their gift to the Depression Initiative, Rod and Janice are hoping that many more<br />
people will begin to see the needs, too.<br />
To learn more about the Depression Initiative at the IOL,<br />
visit http://www.harthosp.org/InstituteOfLiving/DepressionInitiative<br />
26 <strong>Hartford</strong> <strong>Hospital</strong>