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The Heart Touch™ Project's Programs provide support, care and compassion to men, women, infants and children battling terminal illness, isolation and hospitalization through the art of compassionate touch. Our programs utilize professional volunteers who have been trained in the Heart Touch™ Compassionate Touch method of therapy which takes into consideration the emotional, physical and spiritual well being of each individual client. Compassionate Touch therapy treatments are customized for each client based on their specific needs.
We are currently expanding our programs to reach people in the global community, as well as, on the national level through our Heart Touch™ Compassionate Touch Training. If you are able to contribute to either of these areas in any way please call our office today at:
(310) 391-2558
To become a Heart Touch™ Volunteer, please visit our volunteer section to submit your application.
Children
When children become ill it is often hard for them to understand that painful procedures are a necessary part of making them better or alleviating their suffering. Providing massage in hospitals is a way for children to have a positive touch experience during their hospital stay. Currently, Heart Touch™ volunteers are massaging infants and children who are terminally ill and in hospice care.
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Seniors
In our society we're all so afraid of growing old, and what we're afraid of we don't want to see - so the seniors are another population that's very isolated and alone in the final stages of their life.
Our programs in senior homes throughout Los Angeles touch the lives of elderly people who can no longer get out on their own. Many of the seniors have no family and our volunteers are their only guests. Our seniors range in age from 65-102 years old and they cope with a variety of health challenges. Beyond the physical benefits, the elderly who receive massage through The Heart Touch™ Project, experience the benefit of companionship.
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Chronic Diseases
Heart Touch™ was founded as a means of training massage therapists to serve AIDS patients to help alleviate some of their isolation and suffering. In the early 1990s, a close friend of Shawnee Isaac Smith, Heart Touch™'s Founder, was rapidly dying of AIDS and found that no one was willing to touch him. To help him and the thousands of others in his predicament, Shawnee started The Heart Touch™ Project from her own home where she invited and educated therapists about AIDS and the role of massage in caring for the sick and dying.
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Hospice
Hospice Care is considered to be the model for quality, compassionate care for men, women and children facing a life-limiting illness. Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the client's needs and wishes. At the center of hospice and palliative care is the belief that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that our families will receive the necessary support to allow us to do so.
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Domestic Abuse
Domestic and child abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. The unfortunate reality is that often the victims of abuse will become violent and become abusers themselves. One effective way to break this cycle of violence is to demonstrate positive nurturing behavior as an alternative to abuse. Sometimes a simple act of kindness by demonstrating safe and compassionate touch can be the turning point in a child's life. We all deserve to feel appropriate gentle touch, to be nurtured and cared for- especially children. Providing children with healthy role models and helping them to understand the difference between good and bad types of touch with the support of their mothers was our inspiration for creating this program.
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International Volunteer Global Outreach
For over a decade, The Heart Touch™ Project has been at the forefront of a movement to bring the therapeutic, curative and palliative benefits of professional bodywork to vulnerable populations through the art of compassionate massage therapy.
Since early in our existence, that care has extended to infants and children affected by HIV/AIDS. As those infected in the past fall ill, there is an increasing demand for AIDS-related medical care (palliative care and end of life care).
As we are making a difference here in the United States, we recognize the great need to expand our services on a global level. It is our mission to make a real difference and impact the lives of children who have been orphaned due to AIDS worldwide.
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