Crisis Nursery - St. Charles

Crisis Nursery has four clinics. The program started in 2007 made in partnership between IFM Community Medicine and Saint Louis Crisis Nursery, with the St. Charles clinic operating on Tuesday morning. Crisis Nursery started in 1986 when Freda Witherspoon, president of the Federation of 100 Black Women, and Chris Chadwick, of the Junior League, came to our own member of the Board of Directors, Rev. Richard Ellerbrake, at Deaconess Hospital, where they turned a wing of the hospital into a nursery for children in crisis. The Family Medicine program provided medical care for the children, and a physician in the program, Dr. David Campbell, went on to start IFM Community Medicine. 

Crisis Nursery is a nonprofit organization that provides short-term shelter for children up until the age of 12 whose families are in a crisis. The definition of crisis encompasses a variety of scenarios; such as parental stress, domestic abuse, lack of utilities, etc. The Nurse Practitioner conducts a wellness checkup, and sick visits, for all the children that are admitted to the nursery, many of whom have not seen a physician for a long period of time due to lack of insurance or community resources.