Foundation Donates Tablets For Students With Disabilities

The Cookeville Regional Charitable Foundation donated new equipment to the Putnam County School System to assist students with disabilities.

Foundation Director John Bell said the adaptive tablets meant to assist students with communication. Bell said the tablets would be given to the families of the students, allowing them to use these tools outside of school hours.

“They are similar to iPads, but a little more restricted,” Bell said. “And they help non-verbal students communicate, not only with teachers, they have good resources while they’re at school, but many of those kids don’t have the means to have the same type of device at home.”

Bell said the resources that students need are usually provided at school, with the hospital’s donations serving to fill their at-home needs. Bell said the Foundation donates around four dozen adaptive tablets to different school systems in the Upper Cumberland each year. Bell said the hospital also recently donated wheelchairs, hoyer lifts, and miscellaneous bandage supplies to Stone Memorial High School for its CNA program.

“We try to help specifically for the pediatric patients that, of course, the school system is active with, and then any sort of health-related training needs that a school system might be facing as well,” Bell said.

Bell said the hospital receives requests from school nurses and providers across the region for the specific materials they need to support their students.

“They can send them in for any sort of medical equipment that’s not covered by insurance,” Bell said. “Whether that’s a mobility device or a communication device, it’ll help them with that at home.”

Bell said the equipment is distributed by the schools, but will belong to the families after they are given away.

“Oftentimes we already know exactly who they’re going to go to when we give them to the school system,” Bell said. “So they kind of keep a log of what the needs are, and then bring us in when – when they identify those home needs that they can’t meet on their own. So it’s a good partnership.”