Summer Disease-State Camps

Tom Savonick, Senior Medical Writer

I’m more than a few decades past my summer camp days, but I still vividly recall the sights, sounds, and excitement of Camp Waywayanda, a YMCA camp in the hills of rural Northern New Jersey. In those halcyon days, we swam, played games, told ghost stories around the campfire, and annoyed the local bass with baited hooks that an energetic 8-year-old just couldn’t hold still. Every day at camp seemed the best day ever, and that’s an experience no child should miss.

But, summer camp can be a difficult experience for children with special medical needs. They may not be able to play all the games if a bleeding disorder rules out some of the rougher activities. They may not be able to pig out on fresh s’mores if they haven’t learned how to control their type 1 diabetes. And, they may miss out on the swim if today is their day for chemotherapy.

Fortunately, there are summer camps with activities and education custom tailored for children with special medical needs, such as diabetes, hemophilia, cancer, asthma, and other, less common, conditions. One of the great things about these camps is that every camper there knows what it’s like to have the condition. At camp, kids meet and learn from other kids and adult counselors who:

•  Understand first-hand what it’s like to have their condition
• Share their strategies for coping with their condition
• Learn how to turn everyday challenges into everyday triumphs 
• Inspire campers with their personal accomplishments at school, in play, and at work 
• Help campers make new friends and develop their own lifelong support systems

Fun and education for children with special medical needs are the dual purposes of Artcraft Health Specialty Camps. We are the country's leading creator and producer of national support programs for disease state summer camps. We've developed compelling programs for campers, camp counselors, and clinician educators at specialty camps for asthma, oncology, diabetes, and hemophilia.

In addition to the benefits that our programs provide to campers, they also provide significant benefits to the companies that sponsor the camps:\

• Increases access for field forces
• Reinforces relationships with healthcare professionals, parents, young patients, and the community 
• Builds relationships with clinical staff at camps
• Connects with parent through unbranded, educational take-home materials

Our programs can include any combination of fun and education while empowering campers to feel more in control of their condition. As the lead medical writer on the summer camp program, it’s been a rewarding experience for me to know that I’m helping kids have fun, gain independence, and learn about their conditions. It’s also been a blast to recall those great days I had at summer camp. Like the time when we all got together to lift the head counselor’s tiny German car into a tree about 6 feet off the ground. Or, the time the can of beans exploded in the campfire. I could go on, but maybe it’s time to help a new set of campers create their own memories.

If you’d like to learn more about our disease state camp programs, please visit:

http://www.artcrafthealthed.com/solutions/specialty-camps.aspx