EFCST Social Services Coordinator is awarded the Excellence in Caregiving Award

“Kathy is an unsung hero. She cares deeply about persons affected by epilepsy. As a social worker she helps families find their way after struggling with a diagnosis of epilepsy. Her efforts to help the families are beyond those of an ordinary social worker.”- Kim Martin, EFCST Assistant Director

Kathy Kraemer has been honored with the 2018 Excellence in Caregiving Award from the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation. Kraemer is known to be the problem solver for patients at the Foundation. Over the last few years, she has expanded and implemented new programs for patients such as virtual counseling and personalized protective helmets. Kraemer has gone above and beyond expectations by helping patients pay for medications and providing rides to support groups.

A typical day for Kraemer consists of her providing emotional support, clinic services or financial resources. For patients who don’t have access to resources, Kraemer helps to provide them with the services the foundation has.

“We try to inundate them with our stuff, you know, emergency meds sometimes, support group and counseling services,” said Kraemer, “I hear the quality of life getting better for them, and then they feel like they’re part of a family.”

Since joining the team, Kraemer has expanded the counseling program from meeting once every two weeks to once a week and adding a virtual counseling option for patients that can’t drive. Through this new program Kramer has been able to double the amount of patients seen each month.

“It went from seeing three patients every two weeks to six patients a month, to six patients a week,” said Kraemer, “This has really been their touchstone, now they’re able to do it in their own home.”

In April, 2017 Kraemer started a new program with a women’s prison in Bryan, Texas, where the inmates airbrush protective helmets to make them more visually appealing to children. Having no funding, Kraemer reached out to Danmar Products and the company donated her first set of helmets to be painted.

“We didn’t have any and we couldn’t afford them. I appealed to their sense of decency and they sent me about a dozen. Then I called them again and they sent me about a dozen and a half more, and now we have a grant for $2500 to spend to get helmets,” said Kraemer.

Kraemer’s willingness to constantly go above and beyond for the patients has been life-changing for many patients and their families.  We are so proud of our Social Services Coordinator!