Donate to The Heart Touch Project – Support Compassionate Care
The Heart Touch Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of medically fragile and terminally ill patients through compassionate therapeutic touch. The organization trains healthcare professionals, massage and physical therapists, chaplains, caregivers, and volunteers to provide mindful, empathetic touch in healthcare, hospice, and palliative care settings.
About The Heart Touch Project
The Heart Touch Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing compassionate therapeutic touch to medically fragile and terminally ill individuals. Its mission is to lead the training and delivery of therapeutic touch that improves the lives of patients, their families, and their caregivers. Through the Heart Touch Method and specialized training programs, the organization teaches physicians, nurses, health aides, massage and physical therapists, chaplains, caregivers, and volunteers how to use mindful, empathetic touch with hospitalized and homebound children and adults. Its work includes hospice and palliative care, pediatric care, infant massage, trauma-informed touch, and other specialized approaches designed to bring comfort and human connection to people facing serious illness.
What Does The Heart Touch Project Do?
The Heart Touch Project trains volunteers, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to safely provide compassionate therapeutic touch to people who are medically fragile, seriously ill, or approaching the end of life. Its foundational Heart Touch Method combines mindfulness, empathy, communication, and gentle touch with principles of hospice and palliative care.
The organization also provides specialized training in end-of-life and palliative care, pediatric and infant massage, aromatherapy for healthcare and hospice professionals, and trauma-informed therapeutic touch. Trained volunteers can then serve patients through partner hospitals, hospices, and other healthcare settings.
Who Does The Heart Touch Project Help?
The Heart Touch Project focuses on medically fragile and terminally ill men, women, and children, including people receiving hospice and palliative care. Its pediatric work also supports infants and children facing serious or life-threatening medical conditions.
Its work extends to patients’ families and caregivers by promoting compassionate communication, emotional presence, and human connection during difficult stages of illness. The organization also equips healthcare professionals and volunteers with specialized skills for supporting these populations.
Why Donate to The Heart Touch Project?
Donations to The Heart Touch Project support its work providing compassionate therapeutic touch to people facing serious and terminal illness. Support also helps the organization train volunteers and professionals with the skills and sensitivities needed to work with medically fragile patients in hospice, hospital, pediatric, and other care settings.
The organization’s approach focuses not only on physical touch, but also on presence, empathy, dignity, and connection for people whose illness can leave them isolated or with limited physical contact.
Impact of The Heart Touch Project
The Heart Touch Project has developed a model that combines specialized training with volunteer service in healthcare and end-of-life settings. Its programs prepare healthcare professionals, massage therapists, caregivers, chaplains, and volunteers to provide therapeutic touch to medically fragile and terminally ill patients.
Its work has also included research collaboration. In 2002, The Heart Touch Project participated in a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center research project funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, examining massage therapy for people with end-stage AIDS and depression.
Is The Heart Touch Project a Legitimate and Safe Charity?
The Heart Touch Project operates as a nonprofit organization and publicly provides information about its mission, programs, leadership, board of directors, training opportunities, volunteer work, and contact information. Its Board of Directors includes co-founders Shawnee Isaac Smith and René Russo alongside professionals with backgrounds in medicine, education, and massage therapy.
The organization is also approved as a continuing education provider by several professional and state bodies for its Heart Touch Method training, including the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork and the California Board of Registered Nursing.