Instead, parents usually have a nurse from a home health agency come to their home.
Now, a center is opening in Manheim Township where children with health problems or disabilities can go during the day.
Helping Hand, opening next month in Manheim Township, will care for up to 45 children with autism, ventilators, feeding tubes and other challenges for
The Helping Hand Children’s Center will open in mid-July at 2159 Oregon Pike, in the site of a former Magic Years child care center.
It will be only the fourth such facility of its kind in the state, joining others in Pittsburgh and the Philadelphia area.
Helping Hand will be able to care for up to 45 children. It will be staffed by registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants.
Licensed by the state, the center initially will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Based on demand, it eventually could be open around the clock and on weekends, for parents who work other shifts.
The for-profit center is being opened by two local residents, Michael Brenner and Patricia Rose. Brenner, a businessman from East Hempfield Township, and Rose, a registered nurse from Elizabethtown, own Elite Staffing Services, a central Pennsylvania home care company.
Both saw the need for such a facility here.
If an agency nurse has an emergency or is ill and can’t come to the child’s home, parents must scramble to find other care or stay home from work.
“This will have the trust of knowing staff is here every day to take care of the child,” Brenner says.
Also, children who are cared for in their homes often don’t get many opportunities to socialize or do activities with other kids, Rose says.
At Helping Hand, there will be games, art and music in rooms painted with cartoon characters and forest murals. The center plans to have Millersville University students studying special education help to provide development programs.
The center also has purchased adaptive computers, set up so that children can learn and progress on them at their own speed.
A wide range of children are expected at Helping Hand, including those with autism or Down syndrome. The center will work with newborns up to 8-year-olds, taking older children on a case-by-case basis.
Because this is a different kind of care facility, the rooms will be divided up a bit differently. For example, one room will be for children on ventilators.
And unlike standard day-care centers, Helping Hand will accept children when they are ill, so it has set aside an isolation room for their care.
Children also will be able to receive physical, occupational or speech therapy at the center, which has a contract with Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center.
The center also will care for children with short-term needs, such as those recovering from surgery or an illness.
Parents will pay $20 a day for the care, with the rest of the fee being billed to their insurance carrier.
Brenner and Rose expect the center also will provide a way for parents to network and connect. They plan to hold programs for them.
The center will hold an open house for parents but has not yet set a date. For more information, call 979-7616 or see its Web site at www.helpinghandpa.com. 
