Support

One of the goals of Heart to Heart with Anna on the VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness channel is to let people know that support for members of the congenital heart defect (CHD) community is available. Through the radio show we will be talking about the different kinds of support available, where to find it and why it’s helpful.

Some of the best support available today is online. Members of the CHD community can find support through Facebook, YahooGroups and many, many webpages devoted to CHD causes, organizations, specific heart defects and the groups that cater to them, bereavement and more. There are websites devoted to research, hospitals treating our CHD members, clinical trials that CHD members can take part in and wonderful sites that describe CHDs in depth — some even showing videos of certain heart defects or surgeries!

Here we will list specific Support Groups that are mentioned in every episode.

Episode #1 – You Are Not Alone

• Facebook — look up your, your child’s or your grandchild’s heart defect for specific groups dedicated to that CHD or just look up “congenital heart defect” and you’ll be amazed at how many groups pop up!

• The Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Quilt Project is located at: http://www.chdquilt.org/ — this is the organization with which Nancy and Jesse McCain volunteer.

• Congenital Heart Defects.com has this page where there are support groups listed from all over the world: http://www.congenitalheartdefects.com/support.html#allageschdsupport

• Baby Hearts Press provides support through stories and the written word. Go to http://www.babyheartspress.com for more information.