Universities, mental health and Jared Loughner

I wrote a story for the Student Free Press Association about how universities are handling mentally unstable students like Jared Loughner, the shooter in the Arizona tragedy. You can find the story here, or below.

Colleges using counseling, discipline to address mental health

by Elizabeth Essley - SFPA Member on January 13, 2011

At Pima Community College, Jared Loughner asked odd questions in class. He was repeatedly disruptive. And he posted a video to YouTube that called Pima “unconstitutional” and “my genocide school.”

College authorities suspended him in September 2010. Four months later he erupted at a Safeway in Tucson, Ariz., gunning down 20 people, killing six and injuring 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Did the college do the right thing in suspending Loughner? Could it have done more to quell his mental instability?

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Jan. 10 that Pima did all it could to handle Loughner. University officials across America are now asking whether they agree, and what more they can do at their own schools.

Jen Day Shaw, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students at the University of Florida, a school that regards itself as a model for emergency management, said that suspending mentally unstable students is not always the answer.

“The problem with that is that it doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue. Campuses are open environments. I don’t know of any walled campuses,” she said. “With open campuses you’re actually better off caring for that person and making sure they get help, rather than just turning them loose.”

Caring for them is what many colleges are doing, with even more students needing help in recent years.

Severe mental illnesses are on the rise among college students, according to a recent study presented at the American Psychological Association. In 2009, 96 percent of students seeking treatment for mental health issues were diagnosed with a mental disorder, versus 93 percent in 1998.

Despite this, evidence suggests that college campuses are actually safer than other communities. A study by the Arkansas Safe Schools Initiative showed that the murder rate across the U.S. is almost 44 times higher than on college campuses, and the aggravated assault rate is about 13 times higher.

But in response to the highly publicized crimes that do happen on college campuses, many universities have constructed elaborate systems to handle student threats, including counseling services, campus police forces and streamlined emergency procedures — with many upgrades inspired after the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.

The first line of defense for many schools is psychiatric counseling. Alan Glass, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and and director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center at Washington University in St. Louis, said his university employs counselors and psychiatrists who specialize in caring for college students.

“Since [Virginia Tech] we have added mental health staff and enhanced our work with a campus ‘Care Team,’ a multidisciplinary group of campus partners who convene on a regular basis to discuss the support of at-risk students,” he said in an email.

Multidisciplinary task forces are another favorite strategy on college campuses — teams of administrators and professors from all corners of campus who meet periodically to discuss potentially troubled students. Pima Community College instituted a similar group in September 2010, around the time it suspended Loughner, the New York Times reported.

Eastern Michigan University is among the schools that employ this tactic. Its “Behavior Evaluation Team” includes representatives from psychiatric services, the department of public safety and student judicial services.

Following Virginia Tech it established another, more informal committee, called the “Student Intervention Team,” compose of student leaders who meet biweekly to discuss classmates who may be acting strangely.

EMU’s code of conduct, like other schools’, includes procedures for dismissing students who seem to make the campus environment unsafe.

“The bottom line is: We wanted to have this policy to make our campus environment conducive to learning,” said Bernice A. Lindke, vice president for student affairs at EMU.

Northern Illinois University, which faced tragedy in 2008 when a student opened fire in class, killing six and wounding 18, was able to lock down its campus quickly during the emergency due to procedures established partly in response to the Virginia Tech massacre.

“When Virginia Tech happened, many schools started getting on the fast track with protocols dealing with tragedies like these,” NIU representative Brad Hoey said.

Smaller schools may have an easier job in identifying threats and responding to emergencies, including Michigan’s Hillsdale College, with a student population of about 1,400.

Student affairs staff said even if a student is regularly falling asleep in class, they hear about it and can respond.

“We’ve got a real good net to catch these things. We’re fortunate because of our size,” Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said.

And because the school refuses state and federal financial aid, Hillsdale can do what many other colleges can’t because of privacy rules attached to aid: tell parents if a student is having problems academically or socially.

“If we have the intuition that something’s not right, we can partner up with Mom and Dad real quick,” Dean of Women Diane Philipp said.

“We are clearly a more intrusive school than other schools. And it’s a loving intrusion. We have an honor code and a sense of community,” Petersen said.

Hillsdale updated its emergency response system since Virginia Tech, including a text message system that will alert students in case of a violent situation or natural dangers, such as tornadoes.

Hillsdale’s small size, quiet surroundings and relatively sedate student body give students a considerable feeling of security.

“It’s really safe compared to other campuses. I think the student body is pretty level-headed,” Sam Fiske, a senior who works part-time for campus security, said.

Still, Petersen warned, not even Hillsdale is not immune from danger. Hoey agreed.

“No campus or community is immune from tragedy or heartbreak. We’ve gone through that on this campus; Virginia Tech has gone through it, University of Texas and now the area in Tucson…. I heard someone use the terminology, ‘This is the new reality’…. The key thing is preparedness,” Hoey said.

Winter update

It's been a long time since I posted. I never did get my Examiner clips up, but I may still do that for a few of them. As of now I'm half-way through my time as editor-in-chief of The Collegian, Hillsdale College's student newspaper.

Here's a story from the semester. It was a tricky one.

Sept. 23, 2010

Homosexuality on campus prompts policy

Administration on intimacy: “between the sexes, in marriage”

By Liz Essley
Editor-in-Chief
The Collegian

A warm April day in Hillsdale, 2010. Two students lay on the quad, one's head resting on the other's stomach. The two were a couple. The two were also men.

Complaints from other students swirled up to the dean of men's office. This was Hillsdale, one of the most conservative schools in the nation. Why were gay men displaying affection in public? What would Hillsdale do about it?

What would Hillsdale do about it? The episode was not the first to provoke that question.

This summer, the administration decided to answer, writing a document that spells out Hillsdale's beliefs about sexual intimacy and the policy designed to guide its decisions regarding that issue.

The guidelines

The guidelines, approved by the board of trustees and dated July 2010, were announced to the faculty at the pre-opening conference Aug. 27 and were posted on the college's website Sept. 2.

The guidelines document states that the college believes sexual intimacy belongs "in marriage and between the sexes." It states that the college cannot support "organizations or activities that contravene this commitment." It also states that the college welcomes all to thoughtful inquiry who are "willing to work in [a] collegial context."

"The document is a guideline for policies and applies primarily to student affairs. It is meant to articulate a long-standing belief of the college," Associate Provost David Whalen said.

Whalen said the document does not demand agreement from students and that the college was "not looking to antagonize" anyone.

"Questions arose about this, and we wanted some consistent way to address them," President Larry Arnn said.

Though most students remain unaware the document exists, some are already dissenting.

"I respect the fact that as Hillsdale they don't accept government money and they can do as they like... but at the same time I think it's an insult to free inquiry at Hillsdale," former student Ben Crane, who is gay, said.

Gay students interviewed said they knew between eight to 12 gay students, either in or out of the closet, on Hillsdale's campus. They said more had graduated and more may be unknown to them.

Others disagreed with the document because they saw it as an attempt to ban clubs such as the Gay Straight Alliance, which a group of students tried to start in spring 2009.

"From what I've gathered there a lot of gay students at Hillsdale who aren't out of the closet, and this [GSA] would benefit them," senior Christina Stephens, who is lesbian, said. "[The administration] preaches a free-learning environment, but preventing programs like these is detrimental to that."

Professor of Philosophy Donald Turner, though he agrees with the most of the document, believes the college should allow the formation of organizations opposed to the college's mission as long as they are not disruptive.

The discussion

Administrators said they created the document to respond to a national climate increasingly hos-tile to the college's ideas about sexuality, and also to respond to ongoing questions from students.

The school's conversation about homosexuality was jump-started in November 2007, when then-freshman Joel Pavelski (now The Collegian's Vibe editor) published an editorial in which he mentioned he was gay and challenged students to value unity over uniformity.

The discussion moved to the forefront again in fall of 2008, when Jake Morgan '10 published a series of opinions articles in the The Collegian in which he supported gay sexual activity. Morgan and some friends attempted to form a Gay Straight Alliance in spring of 2009, but after months of wrangling with club technicalities, the effort fell flat.

The spring of 2010 saw the issue circulate again when then-freshman Crane and Pavelski changed their relationship status on Facebook to "engaged."

People talked.

"No one looked at me twice when it was just me being gay at Hillsdale. Everyone was like, ‘Fine, do whatever you want'.... But as soon as I started dating Ben … people freaked out," Pavelski said.

Pavelski and Crane were planning to use the college's policy on married couples to allow Crane to move off campus. Under the new guidelines, they would not have been able to do that.

Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said the "ongoing student discussion" over the issue compelled the administration to take it up. He included in the "discussion" Morgan's Collegian opinions, stu-dent complaints about gay public affection and the Facebook engagement announcement.

Fear about pressure from outside organizations also motivated the administration to create the document, Whalen said.

Homosexual in Hillsdale

Homosexuality remains shrouded at Hillsdale. That gay people attend Hillsdale surprises some. Students agree that most people don't know the school has homosexual students.

Gay students interviewed said they came to Hillsdale despite its conservative atmosphere because they leaned libertarian or because they valued the intellectual development Hillsdale could offer.

They said being openly gay at Hillsdale means getting cold shoulders from some, but acceptance from others.

"I think that largely Hillsdale College is split right down the middle," Pavelski said. "There's a huge camp of people who are here because they are conservative Christians ... those people, I think, walk to the other side of the sidewalk when I walk by, don't make eye contact and do what every good Republican does and just ignore it. But I think the other half of campus deals with people on an individual level ... I think that portion of campus sees me as Joel before they see me as being gay."

Students said they had experienced little to no discrimination, with exceptions. Drunken students made anti-gay comments to Crane on a couple occasions. Students approached Stephens and told her to change her lifestyle. Pavelski said two members of the administration attempted to prevent him from joining the Dow Journalism Program because of his views on sexuality.

But on a daily basis, gay students said they experience civility.

"It's not that difficult. I've never been spoken down to, which is nice. I don't feel persecuted or anything," junior Nick Pisano, who is gay, said.

Stephens said she found her friends supportive and her professors accepting.

"There is definitely some hostility. There is also some acceptance. It depends on the individual," she said.

Pisano said he likes being at Hillsdale partly because he likes adding diversity.

"It's a goal to prepare students for the modern world," he said. "If they're too isolated, or if they see [homosexuals] as an abomination or walking sin, they won't be able to deal with them in their day-to-day lives. That's why I'm here."

Gay students interviewed all disagreed with the document on varying points.

Crane saw the document as coming from a college that is drifting from a more libertarian and open attitude to a more Christian and dogmatic one.

"Essentially they want to make it the Bob Jones of the West," he said.

Pisano said he thought the new guidelines would push gay students away from Hillsdale.

"I think 10 years down the road, the chance of gay people coming here will go down. And I think that's what the administration wants. It will make the donors and certain people on campus more comfortable," Pisano said.

Pavelski agreed the college had changed.

"Not only do I think Hillsdale was a different place when I came here, but it actually was," he said. "The establishment wasn't on the defensive, and because they weren't on the defensive, they were more open."

An Update

I'm at the Washington Examiner this summer, working on the local news desk. That means lots of D.C., Maryland and Virginia stuff. And this summer will be mostly hard news on deadline, not features like last year. I've been negligent in updating this blog with my clips, but never fear — I'll get to that soon.

Final story

Friday, August 14, 2009

Childhood center gets loan in time

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Drink your milk," said the teacher in Spanish. The 2-year-old reached again for the glass before her, and after several gulps earned a milk moustache. Meanwhile, outside on the playground, teachers blew soap bubbles toward little hands eager to pop them. "Bubbles!" the children cried in English.

The large house where these toddlers play and are taught in two languages is home to a nonprofit that came under threat in November during the housing and economic crises. The House of Mercy's Rosemount Center, an early childhood development center in Mount Pleasant, found itself scrambling for funds to pay the bills for a previous, much-needed $6 million renovation. Its endowment had sunk in the crisis, its previous loan had fallen through, and it was looking for a new one.

"And in November that was not easy to do," said Barbara Jones, president of the House of Mercy's Board of Trustees.

Cardinal Bank stepped up to the plate and extended a loan to the nonprofit, allowing the House of Mercy and the Rosemount Center to stay afloat.

"We find it important to be supporting the community," said Kathleen Carr, president of Cardinal Bank Washington.

House of Mercy, the oldest Episcopalian charity in Washington, has been serving the District since 1884. Its origins began with a meeting in St. John's Church - the so-called Church of the Presidents, across from the White House.

The Rosemount Center, formerly a home for troubled girls and unwed mothers, changed its focus to young children more than 30 years ago, but still operates in the old home that was built in 1911. After almost a hundred years of use, the house desperately needed an update. Cardinal Bank is now supporting the Rosemount Center as it pays for its renovation.

And the center is supporting 323 families in the Washington area, many of them low-income. It offers Early Head Start and Head Start curriculums for children ages 6 months to 5 years, as well as home-based programs to help meet the needs of struggling families. Rosemount currently enrolls 147 children, and hundreds more remain on the waiting list, said Ms. Jones.

"There is a crying need for [the center]," said Jacques Rondeau, president of the Rosemount Center.

Marsha Riggio, interim program director, agreed, saying Washington lacks free early childhood development programs.

"D.C.-wide this is an issue, especially for those under the age of 3," she said.

It costs about $20,000 a year per child for the Early Head Start program, which serves infants and toddlers, and $9,000 a year per child for Head Start, aimed at preschool-age children, Mr. Rondeau said.

The Rosemount Center stands alone in the District in offering these programs for free in a bilingual setting. Seventy percent of children enrolled come from Spanish-speaking families, and children in every class have two teachers, one English-speaking and one Spanish-speaking. Many of them stay in the programs for all five years, and then enter kindergarten with bilingual abilities.

"The House of Mercy is critical to the well-being of low-income families," Ms. Carr of Cardinal Bank said.

Cathedral

Friday, August 7, 2009

U.S. military is Cathedral tour's focus

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Shrapnel, swords and bayonets crown Christ's head in the small side chapel, tucked between the expansive Gothic nave and another small room, the Children's Chapel. Stained-glass figures of war heroes - from Richard the Lion-Hearted to Nathan Hale - look down on Linda Strating as she addresses her tour group on its last stop, the War Memorial Chapel of Washington National Cathedral.

"I think it's so appropriate that the soldiers are protecting the children. Even the way [the builders] juxtaposed everything. ... Everything has a meaning," she says.

It was this meaning that inspired Ms. Strating, a volunteer docent at the cathedral, to craft the military-themed tour called Service and Sacrifice.

The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Northwest functions as a church and place of prayer for the nation. It is the site for presidential funerals and memorial services for famous Americans - including Presidents Reagan and Ford and in May, former Rep. Jack Kemp. Also, every president since Mr. Reagan - with the exception of Bill Clinton - has attended Inauguration Day services there.

Ms. Strating started giving the Service and Sacrifice tours in May and has trained about seven other docents to give them as well. They are available upon request.

"The people that built this place had that [military theme] in their minds. I'm really just picking it up and showing it to people," she says.

Ms. Strating, whose father was an Air Force colonel and Korean War veteran, found her first inspiration for the tour in the cathedral's large stained-glass window honoring the Air Force. Building on her docent training and some of her own research, she created the hourlong tour that seeks to honor soldiers and the military.

The Washington National Cathedral is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world. Its first stone was laid in 1907, with President Theodore Roosevelt presiding. Two world wars and the Great Depression halted construction temporarily. The last stone was laid with in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush in attendance. It was built stone upon stone, with no structural steel, using the same methods medieval workers used. The only difference was help from cranes and trucks. Some plaques remain blank for future generations to commemorate future leaders and heroes.

The Service and Sacrifice tour highlights the cathedral's military connections in its history, sculptures, carvings and needlepoint kneelers. Ms. Strating starts at the oldest part of the cathedral, Bethlehem Chapel, where Adm. George Dewey is buried. Dewey served on the original planning committee for the cathedral and was first to suggest that the building be constructed in the Gothic style. Ms. Strating also points out that the chapel, completed in 1912, served as a place of prayer for many soldiers heading to the battlefields of World War I.

Ms. Strating also thoughtfully dwells on another member of the military who heartily supported the effort to build the cathedral: Gen. John J. Pershing. He helped raise $16 million for the cathedral in the first half of the 20th century - a key contribution, as the building was completely funded by private donations, not the Episcopal Church or the government.

"It's simply one huge present," Ms. Strating says.

In the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, Ms. Strating points out a mural's depiction of St. John. The saint's face was modeled after that of a young, thin student who worked to gain enough weight to join the Marines and died on the last day of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima.

The tour traces these threads - touching everything from the Civil War to Sept. 11, 2001, to the enormous cost of war itself - throughout the cathedral.

Military chaplains, veterans and families of soldiers soon to be deployed have all requested the tour. Ms. Strating remembers taking one man - a Walter Reed patient wounded in the head by a roadside bomb in Iraq - through the tour. They ended at the War Memorial Chapel, where the young war veteran was struck by the image of Christ as the ultimate heroic sacrifice, crowned with symbols of the devastation of war.

"His eyes opened up, and he was blinking, nodding his head. His mother started crying and said, 'He understands. ... This is the most peace I have felt since this happened.' "

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/07/us-military-tours-focus/

Tech story

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Real-time text capability on horizon

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The next big advance in telecommunications may be a silent one. Widespread access to technology known as real-time text is likely on the way, largely as a result of the deaf community's petitions for increased accessibility.

Real-time text allows users at each end of a conversation to see each character as it is typed, even before they hit the "send" button. It would allow users to integrate text into their voice conversations, allowing them to type out addresses and names that are otherwise tricky to communicate.

"I think that we'll actually see situations where people are talking and typing at the same time," said Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Every new phone will support real-time text if the federal agency that oversees accessibility for the disabled - the U.S. Access Board - adopts new regulations. And that is a move it is likely to make within the next few years, according to Mr. Vanderheiden.

The implications of real-time text on every phone are numerous, Mr. Vanderheiden said. Deaf people could use any phone to instantaneously communicate with any other phone, an ability that is especially important during emergency and catastrophic situations.

Though some 911 call centers are experimenting with emergency instant messages, they do not transmit until the user presses "send." With real-time text, a deaf person could type "I am having a heart attac," and even if the message remains incomplete, 911 would receive the characters.

Mr. Vanderheiden also predicted the hearing world would enthusiastically adopt real-time text, as it did captions for television, another initiative first championed by the deaf. Hearing users could use real-time text to supplement voice conversations or to completely replace voice in noisy environments.

Mr. Vanderheiden spoke last week before an audience of deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind and hearing individuals at the biennial Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) conference in Washington.

Steve Brenner, a 72-year-old deaf Maryland resident, attended the conference presentation on real-time text.

"I think it's fantastic. It's really a revolution," he said. "We'll never be falling behind the hearing world. ... It blew my mind when they gave the presentation."

AOL Instant Messenger already incorporates real-time text, as do a handful of products geared specifically to the deaf. Google Wave, set to debut this year, has real-time text on steroids, Mr. Vanderheiden said. The e-mail, instant messaging and wiki hybrid lets people create a document together through instantaneous, simultaneous editing.

Claude Stout, executive director of TDI, said telecoms generally support new standards for accessibility and have a real desire to meet the needs of the deaf, though they seek out the most inexpensive way to do that.

Mr. Stout also praised real-time text for more closely resembling actual conversation than instant messaging. He also said it would serve as a bridge between the deaf and hearing communities.

"It will place us more on a level playing field," he said.

Mr. Vanderheiden agreed.

"The nice thing about text is the universal nature of it," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/silent-revolution/

Full page color clip, with four photos

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Home sweet McDonald House

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Paper signs guard the two doors. "ISOLATION," they warn in bright yellow. "Do not enter this area." Inside, a boy calls himself "the prisoner" and his mother "the warden."

The boy must limit his contact with the outside world. In May, doctors eradicated his bone marrow with radiation and chemotherapy before transplanting new marrow into his diseased body. He is on the mend, but his white blood cells have not yet rebuilt their former defense system. A common cold could put him back in the hospital.

This is the story of Alex Ramsey, 16, and the house where he has lived for the past 60 days of isolation.

Alex has severe aplastic anemia - his body started killing its own blood cells. It is a terminal illness. In January, he and his parents found themselves choosing between life spans: Should Alex continually receive blood transfusions and live perhaps another 20 years? Or should he undergo chemotherapy and bone-marrow transplant - fraught with risks - and perhaps live to a ripe old age?

They chose the transplant. However, finding a place to live during the chemotherapy, transplant and subsequent 100 days of isolation proved difficult. It was too long to drive every day to Washington, where their hospital is located, from their home in Hampton, Va. Hotels were expensive, and carpets there could hold thousands of germs lethal to the boy. Then a hospital social worker told them about the Ronald McDonald House, which offers housing at a nominal cost to families in situations similar to Alex's.

"The Ronald McDonald House has been the healthiest and safest bet. And the cheapest. The only thing that would have been better is staying in our own house," says Alex's mother, Missy Leonard.

So for Alex and his mother, the Ronald McDonald House jokingly became their "prison" but in reality became their sanctuary.

ALEX

In October, Alex scratched his leg on the way home from a Boy Scout meeting - just a small cut that should have scabbed quickly. It didn't. It kept bleeding and wouldn't stop. So his parents took him to the emergency room, where they discovered his blood platelets had essentially vanished. The count was 2 - a low normal is 141. After numerous tests, transfusions and a week in the hospital, Alex was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia.

"I was scared because I had no idea what it meant, no idea what was going to happen. And of course, the typical mom thing: 'Why? Why my child? Why me?' " Ms. Leonard says.

Alex's disease is what doctors call idiopathic, meaning they do not know how or why he got it. It is not hereditary. It is not necessarily a childhood disease.

Unlike anemia, aplastic anemia causes the body to kill off all blood cells - including white blood cells and platelets - not just red blood cells. This wipes out the immune system.

"In other words, I'm my own worst enemy," Alex says.

However, rather than continue to live in fear after his diagnosis, Alex's family chose to remain positive. His father refused to believe his son's disease would be terminal. His mother remains upbeat and cheerful. Together she and Alex make an effort to have fun and laugh often, nicknaming nurses and bantering with them during hospital visits.

"Vomiting?" asked nurse Bonnie Yates, running through a list of symptoms during a recent checkup at Children's National Medical Center in Northwest Washington.

Alex pretended not to hear correctly: "Comedy?"

"Vomiting. Comedy I'm well aware of," she replied with matter-of-fact affection.

Alex's mother says they try to go through their days tongue in cheek.

"We've had a lot of scary moments. But we don't live on them. We live on the fun times," Ms. Leonard says.

They also have poured their time into fundraisers for organizations that help children with terminal illnesses.

"Our way of coping with this was raising money and helping somebody else so that they could get healed more quickly," Ms. Leonard says.

Over the past year, they helped sell aplastic anemia wristbands to raise money for foundations that fight the disease, shaved Alex's head to raise $1,100 for cancer research and helped recruit more than 200 people to donate platelets to their local hospital during a recent shortage.

Now they want to help the Ronald McDonald House Charities (http://rmhc.org).

THE HOUSE

The little boxes by the cash registers at local McDonald's restaurants are easy to overlook. However, they help fund housing for the hospital stays of children across the nation, including Alex. The Ronald McDonald House on Quincy Street Northeast has 16 bedrooms, including one bone-marrow transplant isolation suite, where Alex and his mother stay.

The house, just a few minutes' drive from Children's National Medical Center, charges a nominal donation - $10 a night - for its services but sometimes waives even that. Brightly colored decor, a game room, toy room, computer room, patio and playground make the time pass faster for families.

But the Quincy Street house was built in 1912, and the cost of maintenance continues to increase. In addition, the house usually operates at full occupancy, with no room left for families, especially long-staying bone-marrow transplant patients - some of whom may be turned away and forced to find more expensive housing.

So the charity plans to build a new house with 26 bedrooms and four isolation suites. Donors already have given $4 million, but about $1.3 million remains to be raised, says Cortney Kelly, manager of the D.C. house.

Lynn Hardesty, a social worker at Children's National Medical Center, says the need for the new housing is acute.

"We have a growing number in our transplant population. People are coming from all over the area, from farther and farther away," she says, adding that if families cannot get into the Ronald McDonald House, they have to choose between hotels or apartments.

"There is no other low-cost option," she says.

Alex and his mother hope to help with fundraising for the new house. In addition, to celebrate the halfway mark of Alex's isolation period this month, they started gathering friends' donations of items on the Quincy Street house's "Big Ticket Wish List," including a crib, a highchair and a DVD/VCR player.

"Laughter was the best medicine for us. And helping others," Alex's mother says.