Chris Brand, President and CEO of Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing home medical equipment and support for individuals with disabilities, talks about the process for requesting and donating medical equipment.
Chris Brand (00:14)
Absolutely, yeah, that's right up my alley. I have been involved with FODAC since I've been in my early 20s and my journey that got me to this organization is funny. You asked that, you know, a lot of people ask how did I get involved with this place because I've been here for 27 years off and on as director and manager, program manager, and you know, a family that I grew up with very close to the organization here in Tucker, Georgia.
had a son with disability with muscular dystrophy. And so I grew up very close like a brother to him since I've been a few months old because they were kind of my daytime family and they kind of adopted me along the way. And I'm very fortunate to have had that experience. But growing up, you know, I was around wheelchairs and then, you know, this family who had to figure out how to make everything work for this person.
had to figure out how to get adapted vehicle and back then, know, everything was, it was not great. Assistive technology for all those things. The ramp for the home had to be built. The walls had to be torn out for a bath, roll in shower. And then there were friends of his that didn't have those resources. You know, there were grandparents raising kids with disabilities, which we see a lot these days as well.
And so I've seen the struggles that families have had with getting this equipment through their insurance or benefits and it's not easy. And so I knew when he passed that I would be doing something in healthcare, pursuing something in the medical field and just kind of was here a few years, pursuits and physical therapy, training for a while, worked at hospitals and then.
and then took a break from that to come back when this founder had grown the place twice as big as it was before. And so I was super excited to kind of come back and take a break from my schooling. And little did I know that a few months later he would be asking me to take over for him because of some health challenges he had and some challenges organizationally we had with that growth that we weren't prepared for.
There's a lot of years trying to get this place in 2001 to where it is today. And we've grown tremendously to utilize the space that he moved into. We've added two more locations around the state and helped all 50 states through the years since 1986 and four territories. I'm really proud in the last 20 years to be growing.
our disaster relief program that has touched 23 states and four territories with equipment, you multiple times over. So helping FEMA, helping five different state VOADs were a part of, mostly hurricane disasters that have a loss of this equipment or recently in this hurricane that went through the Southeast, Helene, you know, helping
send hundreds of oxygen tanks up to South Carolina. we primarily deal with home medical equipment, know, everything you would need to stay independent in your home. And that's our focus. But we have all kinds of other durable medical equipment or pipeline that we can help with. So that's just a little bit of that answer. Sorry, I take it so long.
Katie Wilkinson (03:52)
No, that was great. mean, that's beautiful to hear about this family that had sort of adopted you and how that's impacted your life in ways you probably didn't expect.
Chris Brand (04:01)
Yes, I didn't know this was coming, yes, at all, but I knew that that really had changed my life, that big pivotal point as a teenager and knew I'd be doing something to help people in a medical way or disability. So I'm just perfectly positioned to be where I am.
Katie Wilkinson (04:21)
Yeah, that's awesome. You talked a little bit about what you guys are doing around disaster relief and obviously that's relevant right now. Can you talk a little bit about the other programs that you guys have going on? So home medical equipment, vehicle modifications, et cetera.
Chris Brand (04:31)
Yes, yes. So our primary program that we've grown over these years is collecting gently used home medical and equipment as well as new medical equipment from vendors and manufacturers that we can get in our pipeline here in Atlanta and our warehouse, main warehouse, clean it, fix it, sanitize it, and make it available to whoever needs it. And always trying to figure out creative ways to serve the population so people can call us if they have a need.
We delivered at six hospitals on almost weekly basis here in Atlanta for medical needs for people who don't have equipment and needed to discharge home. We delivered to 17 locations around the state of Georgia almost, well, it is monthly and include one in South Carolina that we make that they, all those community partners send requests to us that we fill and.
and then deliver to them to distribute to their community. So a lot of rural parts of Georgia, we're very proud to have grown that because it's very difficult to get equipment with your benefits the further you are out of Atlanta and away from a metropolitan type of area. So that's a lot of how people access our main equipment on a regular basis. And we also have some other wraparound service programs, know, the vehicle modification program, we take used, gently used,
scooter hitch lifts, vehicle lifts, and try to reinstall those on new cars that need them. That's a very expensive item that we would love to see people have mobility again. And we have, you know, computer reuse program. We have dabbled a little bit with ramps over the years. We're not really strong in that at the moment, that space. But those are kind of our larger programs. We have a credit able program that we've taken over, which is
wonderful. some government funded money that you can get a low interest loan through our program, that program for assistive technology that we don't have. know, funny, funny though, most of the calls about 70 % that we get, we try to find something at no cost for them first through our location, and we're usually able to provide that. So it's not a we're not trying to give loans out, but it's a last it's the last effort.
opportunity if someone needs a home modification for a loved one, they can't fund it, or for people in Georgia. We've raised the cap to 20,000 recently, so it can even help fund or offset the funding for an adaptive vehicle. Those are two of the most common requests we get that, of course, we don't have at FODAC the ability to do those things. So that's an exciting program.
Katie Wilkinson (07:17)
Yeah, that's awesome. What I hear is that you guys just really care about people that are trying to find help. What are some of the home medical, like what is some of the home medical equipment that you guys have, which is kind of a broad question because it sounds like you got a lot flowing through. Is there anything you guys don't accept or like wouldn't be able to help with?
Chris Brand (07:33)
Well, we can accept almost anything because anything extra soft goods that get in our pipeline, because we have a thrift store here, we happen to pick up a lot of household things and medical at the same time, but we'll kind of take everything and give it away to partners internationally if we can't use it here in the States or through our disaster relief program. But we take everything from oxygen concentrators, tanks, CPAP machines, and then everything else you would use in your home to be independent. you know,
a home care bed, a power wheelchair, children's equipment, therapy equipment. We have 65,000 square feet of that are coming and going all the time here in the Tucker area of Atlanta. And, you know, new equipment, we have 24 new pallets of brand new pediatric equipment being donated this Tuesday from a company. it's amazing, you know, the volume that we do get and we have trucks running around to pick up larger amounts that can't be dropped off at one of our drop off sites. So we do
pick up a lot of our partners around the state are a drop-off site for us. So when we deliver to them, we bring back items, items that need repair or cleaning. But people can drop off at our warehouse and then we have other drop-off sites on our website around the state.
Katie Wilkinson (08:57)
That's awesome.
So Givers supports family caregivers caring for someone at home. Most of our caregivers are in the home with their loved one, not long distance caregivers, but in either case. If someone's caring for someone who requires some kind of medical equipment, which is often the case, how do they go about requesting or qualifying for equipment from you guys?
Chris Brand (09:10)
That's a very good question. you really have one questionnaire, a point of contact with us to go through a little bit of why you need the equipment. We ask for a one-time registration fee from people who have not gotten anything from us before for that client, but everything after that is no cost. If they need more in next year or five years from now, it's $25, the registration that we ask for.
But in that process, even if you're waiting to get something to your benefits in three months or you're not sure, you need it every day and we understand that. So that's why you can request it. And if we have it, we're gonna provide it to you. So we just have some checks and balances to make sure people are not selling equipment that we're giving them, that type of thing. Just that we get to talk with them a little bit, get that application filled out, own the phone, people can call us.
They can show up, we wouldn't recommend it in case we didn't have that item that day. But yeah, then we'll hold it for them to come pick up. They can have a loved one pick it up on their behalf and take it to them anywhere in the United States. So, you know, we can't deliver everywhere except for disaster survivors, but people can pick up and I'm to take to Florida, New York. And we've had that happen a lot. You someone has come down with ALS and old high school buddy and.
someone's touched by that and they want to pick up a power chair for that person, take it to them, that's fine with us. So we're very flexible, we're not billing anyone any benefits. This is a ministry kind of opportunity for us to serve people with that equipment.
Katie Wilkinson (11:02)
Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. a tremendous help to people. For those that I can speak for givers, a lot of our caregivers have a couple years that they're caring for older adults, a mom or a dad that got a couple years, oftentimes, the care recipient passes. And now they have medical equipment. If they want to donate it back to you, what do they need to know about doing that?
Chris Brand (11:16)
Yes, that would be great if they wanted to, you know, check out our website for drop off sites. They're all around Georgia. But then when you get further outside of Georgia, we can't really go to pick up unless it's a lot of equipment. But we do have resources if they were to say, hey, I'm in, I'm in wherever part of the state. Is there a place near me? You could email us and ask that, you know, Fodak at Fodak.org.
and we'd be glad to try to point in that right direction. And even if it's out of state, we'll still try to give you a resource.
Katie Wilkinson (12:01)
Yeah, that's awesome. I guess my other question related to this is, it sounds like you guys have new equipment sometimes, but a lot of this is secondhand. Are there any tips or advice around like maintaining or repairing secondhand equipment that people might want to know about?
Chris Brand (12:19)
Well, yeah, that's a good question. think the first thing is that people should think about maintaining their equipment and their brakes and their tires and checking them for loose nuts and bolts. Yeah, I would highly recommend that because you're depending on that for a lot of safety when you're out navigating sidewalks or somewhere like that. So number one, yes, I would recommend doing that at a minimum with your at home. What we get a lot of questions is can we help
repair a piece of equipment and we can. It's not part of our main program of distributing items, but it's a little fee with that, small fees with that so you can make an appointment with us and drop off an item or come and wait while our technicians try to fix it for you with new parts or whatever. We don't charge anything for parts, but we might charge for that small labor amount of time, basically a few dollars little buy-in.
Power chairs people take up take us up on that all the time if you have a trouble your scooter And you don't want to pay hundreds of dollars to take it somewhere to get it fixed or your power chair You can bring it us for a few dollars and many times We'll swap out a $700 joystick on it or a thousand dollar part on it to make it hold again and working we have new batteries from you know the industry the best battery maker for these these things and
We can even do that, put the batteries in at cost. We have to pass that cost along of batteries. That's the only kind of repair item I can think of we would charge for. But we have power Hoyer lifts, we have manual Hoyer lifts, we have everything you can think of that you would need in that realm. And we can work on all of it.
Katie Wilkinson (14:03)
Yeah, that's awesome. The more we talk, the more you keep saying examples of equipment that you guys have that I know are helpful and necessary to our caregivers. I obviously don't want to take away any of the attention from FODAC, but and you guys do serve, you know, outside of just Georgia, but do you have any recommendations for someone that's in California and might not be able to come to you to pick something up? California as an example, but are there organizations like yours that people could look at in other states or?
Chris Brand (14:08)
Yes, yes, but yes, because we've been growing, we're, know, FEMA will call us many times, hey, I'm in Michigan and I need some six, three wheelchairs or something for some storm survivors. And I can usually within 10 minutes or so connect them with those resources up there in Michigan through partnerships that we know of. And so, yes, the answer would be email us and try to find, we will.
Katie Wilkinson (14:32)
similar problems.
Chris Brand (14:58)
We have a couple of different national directories, but also we know people who are doing high level programs around the U S so reach out to us over email, Fodak at Fodak.org. then, but like California right now, the, fires, we're working with FEMA and other partners in the County to ship items they need there. So we're really happy to be, that resource. We're part of national VOAD volunteer organizations, academic disaster. were the first disability service group in that.
organization, which are all the large Samaritans, PERS and Salvation Army, Red Cross, all those agencies that do disaster, if we all convene and talk about how can we do this and make it more seamless or not step on each other's toes and how do we partner to do disaster relief. So we've been very active more recent years all over the US. Shipped to Guam last year, you know, for a disaster there.
Katie Wilkinson (15:58)
Yeah, that's awesome. We'll be sure to include that email address so that people know where to reach you should they be somewhere else. It's exciting to hear you guys are growing so much. so many people are looking for free or low cost medical equipment.
Chris Brand (16:07)
Right. Yes, and it's important not to let that equipment just go to waste, you know, and it's not that much work to make a place to create an opportunity to repurpose that equipment, but it's not easy. You know, it takes a lot of space and some time, some trucking and logistics, but we have a real passion for that around the country and we assist other programs from time to time with technical expertise to help them build their programs.
And we'd love to do more of that, you know, down the road. We even offer our database for a very low fee for other nonprofits to use to track their outcomes. And you raise money with those outcomes by sharing them.
Katie Wilkinson (16:56)
That's awesome. You guys have a lot of programs going on. I also see that you guys do events. You've got your Run, Walk, and Roll and your Breakfast with Santa and some music fests. Can you talk a little bit more about that if you want to get involved with you guys in a way outside of equipment?
Chris Brand (17:04)
Yes, we'd love to have number one, people come with special events, but if people would like to volunteer with us or get involved, there's always opportunities to sort and help us with medical equipment here in Atlanta, but also in Savannah and coming soon in our Griffin warehouse. that's another, it's just starting to get open and up, but we'll have a grand opening this summer. So there's three locations around.
around the state that folks could plug in if they'd like to. But yeah, we have events, we have partners who do equipment drives for us all year long in different parts of the state that you can find on our website if someone's doing that near you. But we do have a fundraiser events that are great. We have a walk and roll coming up in May, May 3rd at Stone Mountain Park. Great partner of ours and it's a great time when our clients come out to support us and give back, which is awesome. You know, to have a lot of the clients
coming with other supporters, a golf tournament in October, and a breakfast with Santa, which supports our pediatric program in December at, no, not at the park anymore, but that's here in Atlanta.
Katie Wilkinson (18:23)
Awesome. Yeah, again, we'll include links everywhere so people know where to find you guys and how to get involved. Is there anything we missed, Chris? Anything that you feel like we didn't get to talk about about FODAC or just resources available to caregivers in Georgia?
Chris Brand (18:36)
I think we covered most of those caregiver supports and we do have a new Veterans Liaison as well if anyone is a Veteran. Unfortunately, when you call us from the community, we're first come first serve. We can't really take a waiting list or wait for something because we'd have so many, we'd have a year's worth of people on a waiting list for the items we need. But if you're a Veteran, we're not going to charge a registration fee. We're going to also
connect you with kind of a case manager for your needs. If you need anything, you let him know he's going to be proactive and try to help make sure you have resources. If we can't provide it, we're going to provide it. He's going to call back. So there is a close hands on touch with veterans and you know, we're, but we're, proud to do the support that we do in the community. There's over a quarter billion dollars worth of items we've distributed over these years.
about 12 to 15 million a year of value that we distribute. About 20 states getting something every year. So it's a large program. We love it. We'd love to have partners help in your community wherever you are to help us collect equipment to get it back in the hands of people who need it.
Katie Wilkinson (19:52)
Yeah, thank you so much. mean, this has been like this is a huge help to people. Obviously, you guys are obviously doing big and important work. So I appreciate you taking the time to share with givers where our caregivers and their families might be able to access resources.
