UC Health’s Timothy Freeman, MD, Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has received a $750,000 grant from the Hatton Foundation to grow staffing and capacity to serve more adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is the second grant from the Hatton Foundation to expand services and further community impact.
The Hatton Foundation funds will support the Freeman Center in growing staff and capacity to transition more patients with IDD from pediatric health care to comprehensive adult health care. These funds will allow the center to establish several critical new positions to provide wraparound services to patients and families, including behavioral health care.
“For far too long, adults with IDD have been underserved by the medical community. UC Health in partnership with the Hatton Foundation has a unique opportunity to transform and elevate the healthcare experience for these adults. We are grateful to the Hatton Foundation for their leadership in bringing the Freeman Center to life. We truly could not do this work without their support.” said Lauren Wang, MD, the center’s medical director and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UC College of Medicine.
Formerly the UC Health Transition Care Clinic, the Timothy Freeman, MD, Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities was created in 2022 as an interdisciplinary primary care clinic specifically for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and many rarer syndromes.
The Freeman Center helps patients and families transition out of pediatric health care into an environment that provides coordinated, patient-centered adult health care. It is one of the few academic health centers in the country to provide interdisciplinary services for adults with IDD. The Freeman Center currently serves approximately 1,000 patients – with many more transitioning from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The center is named in honor of Timothy Freeman, MD, longtime UC Health physician and assistant professor in the UC Department of Family and Community Medicine, whose life’s work was dedicated to the care of adults with IDD. Dr. Freeman passed away in 2022, but his vision and work carries on through the staff, patients, families and community partners that are the heart of the Freeman Center.
Situated within UC Health, Greater Cincinnati’s only adult academic health system, the Freeman Center serves as a welcoming access point for patients to connect to the broader health system. The Freeman Center prioritizes training and empowering future physicians to care for adults with IDD in their communities. Services provided at the center include primary care, behavioral health and psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, dietary services, and more.
Established in 1997, the Cincinnati-based nonprofit Hatton Foundation provides support to medical organizations, youth, disabled persons, as well as research in families with disabled children and mentoring programs. The Hatton Foundation has provided the opportunity to strengthen a foundation for the Freeman Center and its impact with be felt for years to come.