Skip of New York

How We Help

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in New York State each year:

  • 1 in 6 children are diagnosed with developmental disabilities (725,166)
  • 1 in 33 are born with birth defects (132,000)
  • 1 in 59 are disabled from accidents (74,000)
  • 1 in 68 have Autism (64,000)

Too many of these children are permanently hospitalized or moved to nursing facilities – often unnecessarily – because the support services to care for a child at home are not in place or easily accessible. Caring family members are an essential part of the healing process, and they have an emotional commitment that no one else can match. A hospital is the place to cure a child, but it is not a place for a child to live. SKIP helps bring children home and stay home.

SKIP of New York acts as a free GPS. SKIP helps over 5,000 medically fragile and developmentally disabled children each year by linking them to a broad array of programs, services and equipment. A sampling includes: nursing care, medical equipment, adaptive feeding utensils, custom strollers and transport chairs, sleep safe beds, home and vehicle modifications, and educational and recreational programs. The equipment and services SKIP accesses for families mitigate risks and reduce the medical, economic and emotional challenges parents face so they can raise their medically vulnerable child at home.

By living at home with their families, children can benefit from an enhanced healing process, participate in their schools and communities, realize their full potential – and reduce the cost of their healthcare. In New York State, the average cost of hospitalization per child is $337,625 as opposed to $69,752 for at-home care, which nets a savings of over 80%. For every child that SKIP brings home, there is a savings to tax payers of over $268,000. In an average year, SKIP generates a savings of over $50 million in public expense.

Through service coordination, advocacy and hands-on problem solving, more than 150 SKIP case managers transform the lives of the 5,000 children they work with each year.

Services Provided

Visit our Enrollment page for a complete list of programs provided.

Crusader, problem solver, GPS, champion, friend – SKIP of New York provides a wide range of advocacy and care coordination services.

A partial list of the services SKIP coordinates include:

  • Home care, paraprofessionals, nurses
  • Educational placement
  • Medical and psychological care
  • Durable medical equipment
  • Home and vehicular modifications
  • Respite workers
  • Speech, occupational and physical therapy
  • Advocacy
  • Habilitative services
  • Family education and training to help parents advocate for their children and manage behavioral problems
  • SKIP also connects families with schools, extracurricular programs and summer camps that are specially designed to meet their needs