Consider that:

• $25 assists patients with emergency medical needs such as medications, food, shelter or transportation to and from medical offices.
• $50 helps children ages 6 months through 5 years receive a brand new book at every well-child check-up through HealthNet’s Reach Out and Read Literacy Program.
• $75 helps provide interview clothing and bus passes for at-risk, first-time fathers learning to care for their families through HealthNet’s Best Father Program.
• $100 gives HealthNet the ability to use your donation for the programs and people that need it most urgently.
• $500 helps provide services through the Healthy Families Program that teach and encourage the skills that make a family work.
• $1,000 provides tuition for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training and CNA certification for a Homeless Initiative Program client.

Last year, HealthNet served more than 59,286 individuals in the Indianapolis area. With your help, we can do even more in 2016.

Any gift, large or small, will make a difference in our ability to put our patients’ needs first as we provide the very highest standard of care in a community-based environment.

Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation online.

Discuss how you started smoking.  What age? What was the appeal?  Did you think of possible consequences?

I had older brothers that got me involved around age 6-8.  I started smoking casually around age 12 and was a heavy smoker by age 16 because I had older friends.  My parents were deceased at that age and I just thought it was cool.  It became a habit but I didn’t worry about anything back then.

Discuss your past attempts (if any) to quit smoking.  Why do you think they weren’t successful?

I used candy and gum.  I quit four times for a couple of years but stress easily got me started again.  This time my age, health, and money made me want to quit.

What motivated you to quit for good?  How long have you been smoke-free?

Money, health, children and grandkids.  In October I will be 3 years smoke-free.

Discuss how Healthnet’s Quit Smoking Program helped in your journey to quit for good.

The motivating process.  This program helped in various ways with all the counsel and support.

 What has been most rewarding to you about quitting?

The money I’ve saved, the improvements to my health, and just feeling better overall!

HealthNet’s Smoking Cessation Program provides nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), which helps reduce patients’ withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Unfortunately, the cost can be a real barrier, particularly for patients without insurance. In the past, we’ve partnered with the Marion County Public Health Department to provide these patients with NRT at no cost to them. In 2013, we supplied these patients with 155 boxes of patches and 60 boxes of gum, totaling $3,500. This year, the Health Department was forced to end this support, due to funding cuts. We are currently looking for other community partners who might be able to assist with this $3,500 need.

If you’d like to support HealthNet’s Smoking Cessation Program, you can make a tax deductible donation here. Check out Kathy’s success story here!

Generosity can be seen in many ways:

• Donating last year’s coat to a homeless shelter
• Dropping some spare change into the Salvation Army bell ringer’s red bucket
• Purchasing a toy for the Toys for Tots program

HealthNet has seen seen an outpouring of generosity over the last couple weeks. Groups have come together to donate coats, hats, gloves and blankets to our Homeless Initiative Program, and social workers at our Community Health Centers are getting ready to distribute toys to children in need thanks to organizations like Toys for Tots and Mattel’s Toy Donation Program.

But what happens when the new year begins and people get back to their daily lives?

HealthNet’s social workers work tirelessly throughout the year to ensure that thousands of families and children are having their basic needs met.

These needs include referrals to area programs to help with heating assistance, bus passes to get to their health care appointments, and guidance on where to find job training and educational services. Our social workers also work with families to help provide school uniforms, properly fitting shoes and even a gift for parents to give their child on his or her birthday.

During the holiday season there seems to be an abundance of organizations helping families provide toys to their children for Christmas but what happens when June comes along and a child is without a birthday gift or the basic needs of life?

With your help, HealthNet’s social workers can continue to provide these services year round.

Please consider donating $25 to help purchase a birthday gift and basic care items for a child who would otherwise go without. Give a gift that keeps giving year-round! 

On May 8, nearly 140 million Mother’s Day cards will be exchanged in the United States. Most of these cards cost between $4 and $5!

Now imagine what would happen if you donate that five dollars to your favorite Indy non-profit in honor of Mom. We could CHANGE our city for the better!

But wait…you may be wondering how five dollars can change anything. When it comes to women’s health, five dollars helps ensure that a woman who can’t afford a mammogram will get one. Five dollars helps create a community of support and a place to turn for questions when an inner-city woman finds out she has breast cancer. Five dollars gives us the ability to provide tools that enable girls and women to become better health advocates. Five dollars changes everything.

Consider making a gift to HealthNet in honor or in memory of all the moms in your life. And if you’re thinking a $5 donation doesn’t make a difference, think again. If every one of our blog readers, e-newsletter subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook supporters made a $5 donation in honor of their mom or loved one this Mother’s Day, we’d raise more than $20,000 for early breast cancer detection and awareness for women in need. That’s right — $20,000.

We all know the value of access to health care services, and I know that many of you care deeply about women’s health issues. So this Mother’s Day, when you’re contemplating which card to buy, honor your mom with a gift to HealthNet.

With every $5 donation, we’re on our way to changing Indy. Let’s make our city a healthier place for moms everywhere!

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Want to keep up-to-date with HealthNet’s efforts to improve access to health care in Indy? Friend, follow and find out more!

After the frigid temperatures, ice and snow of recent weeks, it’s something we all can appreciate.

On January 30, the Indiana Pacers and Dick’s Sporting Goods teamed up with Pacers’ Point Guard T.J. Ford for his annual Coat Drive benefiting HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program (HIP).

Hundreds of families stopped by the Dick’s Sporting Goods at Castleton Square Mall on a cold, Sunday afternoon to donate new or gently used coats. In return, they received one ticket per donated coat for an upcoming Indiana Pacers game.

Fans lined up for the opportunity to meet T.J. in person, as well as Boomer and the Pacemates. They also brought something to leave behind. In less than two hours, more than 250 coats had been donated – all for homeless men, women, boys and girls.

Over 250 coats were collected and distributed for HIP clients! Thank you to all who donated!

This was the sixth year for the coat drive and it couldn’t have come at a better time, with temperatures plummeting and the wind chill near record levels. In a matter of days, the Homeless Initiative Program staff distributed the coats to grateful homeless clients around Indy.

It’s not too late to help. HIP is always in need of coats and other items, and we are grateful for any and all support in meeting the basic needs of our clients.

If you, your work colleagues, church group or volunteer organization would like to help, please use this list for ideas of other ways to host a drive of your own:

• New underwear and T-shirts
• Sweatpants and sweatshirts
• Gift Cards – anything to provide a hot meal or basic needs items
• Diapers/pull-ups/baby wipes
• Socks and shoes
• Toiletries

You can help too!!

HealthNet’s Blanket Indy with Care Campaign is over halfway completed, but we still need your help! Our goal is to raise $25,000 by February 25th.  Donate $5 and tell 5 friends because $5 x 5000 = $25,000!!  Learn more here.