The Miller-Dwan Foundation supports the historical specialty areas of the Miller-Dwan Medical Center and Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center both internally and in the community. Our areas of interest are:
- Cancer Treatment/Radiation Oncology Services
- Burn Care
- Mental Health Services
- Adolescent Chemical Dependency Services
- Physical Rehabilitation
- Specialty Surgical Services
The following grants were awarded in 2011:
Miller-Dwan Foundation Unrestricted Fund
$50,000 to the University of Minnesota, Duluth Psychology Department to examine parent participation and beliefs in child and adolescent partial hospitalization programming.
$20,500 to Well Being Development to expand Ely’s Northern Lights Clubhouse, a program designed to support educational, employment and life goals and reduce social isolation of those who are suffering with mental illness.
$30,000 to Essentia Health Nutrition Services to purchase a Calorimeter that will allow burn and rehabilitation patients to receive the most accurate up-to-date medical nutrition therapy available, improving patient outcomes, enhancing health, decreasing patient days on ventilator and decreasing numbers of days spent in the Intensive Care Unit.
$13,950 to the Caring Ways Cancer Resource Center located in the Duluth Clinic to study the impact of expressive writing and journaling on the emotional/social well-being of cancer survivors.
$2,580 to Essentia Behavioral Health’s Intensive Outpatient Program for Young Adults. Funding will allow the program to add a new twice-per-week yoga session to its current psychotherapeutic group work. The provision of yoga will help modulate the stress, increase emotional awareness, and allow patients to more adeptly manage thoughts, feelings and behavior in conjunction with the cognitive behavioral therapy currently offered.
$3,000 to the Essentia Behavioral Health Adolescent Chemical Dependency Program to update the patient and family education resource library.
$5,000 to Essentia Health – Duluth Clinic Social Work Services for patient emergency funds that will provide a safety net for cancer, wound care, and physical rehabilitation patients in the event that an emergency would preclude them for accessing necessary health services.
$5,000 to Memorial Blood Centers for a Leuko-Reduced Red Blood Products Cell Refrigerator for the processing of blood for our region.
Van Gorden Fund of the Miller-Dwan Foundation focusing on physical rehabilitation
The Van Gorden Fund provides support to organizations in our region dedicated to providing people with injuries or physical disabilities assistance to reach their highest possible level of function. The following grants were awarded from this fund.
$22,580 to the Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders to help attract a new Speech/Language Pathologist and replace a copy machine.
$4,780 to CHOICE, Unlimited to add an advanced yoga class to its programming repertoire for people with disabilities, increasing the number of yoga classes from one to two.
$3,000 to the Minnesota Ballet for the weekly class “Creative Dance for Children with Physical and Developmental Challenges.”
$2,865 to Essentia Health – Miller-Dwan Medical Rehabilitation for the provision of weekly music therapy sessions that include the services of a harpist and certified clinical musician.
$12,229 to the Essentia Health Fitness and Therapy Center for equipment that serves elderly and disabled individuals.
$8,000 to Courage Duluth for the 2012 Great Lakes Mono-Ski Madness which provides instructional mono-skiing opportunities to people with spinal cord injuries and other low extremity disabilities via three-day mono ski camp for children and adults.
$51,418 to the Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center Voice Rehabilitation Program for Stroboscopy, digital laryngeal imaging equipment that will enable practitioners to provide local state-of-the art voice disorder assessment and treatment for patients who’ve experienced stroke, trauma and other disorders that affect their ability to speak.
$65,175 to Essentia Health – Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation for the Hocoma Armeo Spring, equipment that works to reeducate the neuromuscular of the upper arm for patients who have suffered a stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury or other diagnosis with muscular atrophy.
$1,600 to Essentia Health Rehabilitation for Rehabilitation of the Client with Hemiplegia: Functional Standing and Ambulation, training designed for the Essentia Health neurological disorders rehabilitation team.
$4,744 to the Essentia Health Therapy and Fitness Center for Kinesio Taping training, a muscle taping method that enhances the body’s natural healing processes and provides muscle support that can be used with all patient populations in all areas of rehabilitation.
