The Naples Children Foundation’s operating model funds initiatives in seven strategic areas, four of which center on health. “Healthcare is the foundation for everything,” NCF honorary trustee and Fund a Need Committee member Stephanie Pezeshkan says.
With this in mind, NCF and its trustees decided to anchor the 2026 festival, The Picture of Health, on pediatric healthcare as a whole. The goal? Ensure every child can access the care they need for body and mind.
In 2024, the nonprofit put that commitment to work, establishing the NCF Pediatric Health Center in Immokalee. The facility has already brought behavioral health, vision and dental care together under one roof. Occupational, physical and speech therapy services from Golisano Children’s Rehabilitation Center are set to arrive early this year.
Despite Collier County’s reputation as one of Florida’s healthiest, wealthiest regions, gaps in access persist. “Parents struggle to find pediatricians, dentists or behavioral health providers,” says Jamie Ulmer, president and CEO of Healthcare Network (HCN). The organization serves more than 50% of the county’s children, providing medical, behavioral, vision and dental care.
“The most pressing gaps today are in oral health and behavioral health,” Ulmer says. Data from a 2024 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey illustrates the need: Collier County children aged 10 to 17 reported higher rates of depression symptoms across the board compared to statewide averages. “These aren’t abstract numbers,” Pezeshkan emphasizes. “They represent children in our community whose futures hang in the balance.”
Recently collected data reinforces the stark picture. Fewer than 3% of Collier dentists accept Medicaid, and according to the 2025 Collier County Health Needs Assessment, more than 10% of local children were uninsured in 2023 (compared with the statewide 7.5%). “Kids often go without checkups or screenings until they’re already in crisis,” Ulmer says. Pezeshkan points to Florida Health Charts, which shows a 67% drop in children ages 1 to 4 covered by MediKids. “Fewer young children are insured during their most formative years,” she says.
While HCN and its partners push to close the gaps, the county’s population growth leads to increased demand. At the same time, the ongoing housing crisis makes it difficult for healthcare providers to attract and retain talent.
Sarah Zaiser-Kelly, NCF’s senior vice president, grants and community impact, says the foundation is looking to scale the school-based clinics operated by HCN, extend hours for evening and weekend visits, and ensure services are culturally competent and multilingual. “We want to create a future where no child’s health is determined by their ZIP code or their parents’ income,” she says. In the stories that follow, you’ll meet three children whose lives have been positively transformed by this approach to accessible, compassionate care. —Erica Corsano
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
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NCF’s integrative approach produces results. Florida Department of Health data shows that between 2017 and 2023, infant mortality in Collier County decreased by 16% and the rate of uninsured children decreased by 5.4%. Meanwhile, graduation rates among students with disabilities rose 91% between 2011 and 2024.
Collier County Pediatric Health, By the Numbers
- 42% increase in mental health hospitalizations for children under 18 from 2017 to 2024
- More than 10% of children under 19 are uninsured (vs. 7.5% statewide)
- Children aged 10-17 reported higher rates of depression symptoms than the state average
- Less than 3% of dentists accept Medicaid
Nurturing Resilience
With support from a collaborative care team, a teenager gained the confidence to advocate for her mental health.
Nineteen-year-old Micaela Casanovas describes herself as “pretty much an open book” when it comes to mental health. Today, she’s working, studying and helping others find their voice. But the confidence she carries now was hard-won. For much of her childhood, anxiety controlled her days and fear shaped her nights. “Ever since I was little, I was different from other kids,” she says.
Her mother, Jennifer Montoya, noticed early on that something felt off and enrolled her daughter in a clinical study to learn more. At age 6, Micaela was diagnosed with ADHD—a label that explained her restlessness but didn’t make life easier. At school and at home, she struggled to focus. She was so easily distracted that she could barely read a book or maintain eye contact while talking with her mom or dad. “I was constantly looking elsewhere,” Micaela recalls. “They said it was almost scary.”
Jennifer, a mother of six, felt helpless. “I just didn’t know what to say or how to give her that extra attention,” she recalls. “She wasn’t a bad kid, but it was very up and down.”
Medication helped some symptoms, but the side effects left her feeling dulled and disconnected. “There was a lot of trial and error, and I wasn’t going to therapy,” Micaela says. “I wasn’t having behavioral issues anymore, but I stopped being a person. I just shut down.”
Then came loss. When she was 10, her father died of complications from cardiomyopathy. Her anxiety deepened with grief and fear. The nightmares that had haunted her for years intensified. She wouldn’t remember the dreams, only the panic they left. “I would wake up sobbing,” she says. “I was absolutely broken. I was angry at everybody, and nobody could say anything to make it better.”
Through her early teens, she felt trapped in a cycle of panic and isolation. She had no friends and felt like she was living on an island of anxiety. Micaela would cry and hyperventilate at school until she’d have to go home. “It felt like my chest was going to crush in on itself,” she recalls. Her symptoms persisted for years as she tried different medications. “I rode the wave and let [the doctors] do what they thought would be best, which was medication,” she says. “But I was struggling.”
The prescriptions were helping, but they weren’t enough. In 2023, when Micaela first opened up to Dr. Salvatore Anzalone, a pediatrician with HCN, she spoke about her ongoing struggles with severe anxiety, frequent panic attacks and sleep difficulties. She suffered from major depressive episodes and often wouldn’t leave her room to talk to anyone. The teen says she felt like “a ball of anxiety.”
Rather than provide her with a referral to an external provider, Dr. Anzalone introduced her to his colleague, psychiatrist Dr. Keenan Tamm, whose office was right down the hall. It’s the kind of coordinated care that HCN, a nonprofit offering affordable care through its 13 Collier County clinics, is designed to provide. NCF funds the group’s integrated care model that unites medical and mental health services, allowing teams to coordinate treatment plans and address physical and emotional symptoms in tandem.
The trio shaped her care plan collaboratively, with Micaela playing an active role in voicing her needs. Through further screenings, Micaela was diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depressive disorder. The doctors reconfigured her treatment plan, gradually adjusting her medications, adding grief counseling and one-on-one therapy sessions, and providing her with behavioral tools, such as deep breathing techniques. The team also helped Micaela’s mother understand her coping mechanisms and the interplay between therapy and medication.
Soon, her doctors began to see signs of improvement. “Her panic attacks decreased,” Dr. Tamm recalls. “She started to be better able to engage in things at school and at her lifeguarding job.” As Micaela finally found some relief from the bouts of anxiety and panic attacks that had shadowed her every day, she started connecting with people at school. She even became the varsity manager for the school’s boys’ basketball team. “Everything changed for the better,” she says. “But it took a long time to get there.”
As Micaela steps into a new chapter, she is thinking about how she can give back. She plans to enroll at Florida SouthWestern State College–Collier Campus and hopes to enter the school’s nursing program, dreaming of a career as an ER, trauma or pediatrics nurse. Until then, she’s enjoying working as an assistant pre-K teacher at a local Montessori school in Naples. “Five years ago, I could never even say that I was grateful for my life, because I didn’t want it,” Micaela says. “Now, I’m just so grateful for it—and a second chance to live—that I can’t imagine it any other way.” —Terry Ward
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When Micaela Casanovas connected with a Healthcare Network psychologist in 2023 after years of battling anxiety and panic attacks, the teenager felt lost. Today, she reflects on her mental health journey and the power of self-advocacy with gratitude.
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NCF’s Mental Health initiative supports integrated systems of care like those at HCN, where diverse teams of providers work in the same building, creating efficient, collaborative pathways for immediate care.
A Head-To-Toe Approach
Across its clinics, Healthcare Network integrates children’s mental and physical care.
Healthcare Network (HCN) has spent nearly five decades building an integrated care model that treats the whole child—body and mind. At many of its centers, pediatricians and behavioral health specialists collaborate to ensure that every child’s needs are met, often in a single visit. A child who comes in for a checkup may also receive a behavioral health screening, with an on-site counselor available that same day if concerns arise.
The approach came to full expression with the 2020 opening of the Nichols Community Health Center in Golden Gate, a 50,000-square-foot hub designed from the ground up for seamless collaboration among pediatrics, family medicine, women’s care, dental care, behavioral health and pharmacy.
Since then, HCN has expanded its reach through mobile clinics that deliver care where it’s needed; multilingual providers fluent in Spanish and Haitian Creole; and newfamily medicine and pediatric dentistry residency programs. This spring, the team debuts the Van Domelen Community Health Center, one of 13 facilities in HCN’s countywide system—several of which serve underserved communities. The $15 million facility extends the integrated approach to the Orangetree area, one of Collier County’s fastest-growing communities, where many families currently travel 20 to 30 minutes for care.
All Eyes on the Future
The NCF-funded Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Naples brings clarity and confidence to thousands of Collier County students, like ninth-grader Izzy.
When Izzy G., a ninth-grade student at Immokalee High School, failed a routine vision screening at school two years ago, it was unexpected. As a football and baseball player, he’d always received the annual physical required to participate in school sports. His doctor’s exam included vision and hearing tests, and he’d passed them year after year. “It never came to me or my pediatrician that I had a problem with my vision,” he says.
Though he was surprised to hear he needed glasses, the diagnosis explained some things. He’d always liked to sit in the back of class or somewhere in the middle, but when it came time to take notes on what the teachers were putting on the board, he’d move up a few rows. It also explained the headaches. When Izzy complained his head hurt, he and his family assumed he was dehydrated from long hours on the field. Even though his parents both wear glasses, it didn’t occur to them that Izzy might need them, too. His grades never slipped, as can happen with undiagnosed vision issues, and he didn’t complain.
The Florida Department of Health conducts mandated vision screenings for students in kindergarten, first, third and sixth grades, as well as kids entering the school system for the first time. But many children—especially in low-income schools—still fall through the cracks. With NCF funding, Bascom Palmer fills the gap in Title I schools by conducting the mandated screenings and expanding care with additional screenings and follow-up for any K–12 student with parental consent.
Launched five years ago in 30 low-income schools, the NCF-supported Bascom Palmer in-school vision program has screened more than 52,000 Collier County students. The program expands to 40 schools for the 2025–26 school year, reaching 9,500 children. “We try to promote proactive and preventative care,” Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Naples’ initiative navigator Jessica Delgado says.
Initially, Delgado and Dr. Bailey Peterson, an optometrist with Bascom Palmer, expected to find kids who simply struggled to see the board. They did—but also uncovered more serious conditions, like retinal issues, optic nerve disease, genetic conditions and even glaucoma. After the first couple of weeks, Dr. Peterson was astonished. “I don’t know how some of these kids are even walking down the hallway and going to the bathroom,” Delgado recalls her saying. “You don’t realize how much this can change someone’s life,” Delgado adds. “When they’re little, they learn to adjust and adapt. They don’t know any different.”
Roughly 25% to 30% of students fail the vision test and require a comprehensive exam with an optometrist. Most end up needing glasses, and many lack health or vision insurance. For some, these in-school screenings are the first time they’ve ever had their eyes checked. In 2021, NCF awarded the eye center $1.1 million to amplify the effort, which includes a vision navigator and family liaison who guide schools and parents, ensuring everyone understands diagnoses and options for care. The foundation also helps cover the cost of follow-up exams and two pairs of prescription eyeglasses for each child (a pair for home and one for school). Since 2020, more than 7,400 kids have received prescription glasses.
For children like Izzy, whose families have access to vision insurance and pediatric care, the screenings can catch cases that might otherwise be missed. “Had it not been for the school screening, we would not have known [he was in need],” his mother, Wendy G., says.
When Izzy put on his glasses for the first time, the world shifted into focus. “I walked to the back of the classroom, put them on and looked at the board,” he says. “It was something I’ll never forget. Even now, I’m speechless at how much it helped me.”
The difference extends to the fields. He now has sharper depth perception and clearer long-distance vision. Earlier this year, at a baseball practice, he took off his glasses before stepping onto the field. With one fuzzy look around, he ran back to grab them: “They’re something I can’t live without,” he says. —Susan B. Barnes
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Closing the Gaps
Bascom Palmer brings clarity to students, one school at a time.
Subtle vision changes can evade routine checkups. As kids adapt, symptoms get missed and issues compound. One of NCF’s Vision Initiative partners, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Naples, takes preventive action by meeting children where they are. The healthcare facility’s in-school vision screenings bring care directly to students who need it most.
NCF-provided research suggests that up to 85% of at-risk students have vision problems that are either undetected or untreated. Bascom Palmer helps combat these gaps by offering screenings for K–12 students in Title I schools. In five years, the team has screened more than 52,000 children across the county.
Beyond screenings, Bascom Palmer’s vision navigator and family liaison guide families through follow-up care. The NCF-funded program helps cover full exams and two pairs of prescription glasses per child—one for home and one for school.
Along the way, clinicians are detecting nearsightedness, retinal and optic nerve disease, genetic conditions and glaucoma. The result: earlier intervention and fewer barriers to care. —Addison Pezoldt
Reasons to Smile
For 11-year-old Waylon and other children living with a disability, NCF Pediatric Dental Center’s sensory-friendly care turns fear and pain into relief.
For many children living with autism, everyday tasks can feel overwhelming. For Kate Owens Heins and her 11-year-old son, Waylon, one of the hardest was going to the dentist. “The screaming, the tears, the failed attempts to even get him to sit in the chair,” Kate says. “I’ve left offices feeling defeated.”
On earlier visits, Waylon had to be sedated and strapped into a papoose, which Kate likens to a straitjacket, just to have his teeth cleaned and checked. So, when he developed a toothache at 10, she braced for another ordeal. “I felt hopeless,” she says.
Through a friend, Kate discovered the NCF Pediatric Dental Center. Established in 2008 in partnership with the University of Florida and Florida SouthWestern State College, the clinic provides accessible dental care for children across Southwest Florida.
Three years ago, the clinic added a sensory room for children living with autism and other developmental disabilities. The suite—complete with its own entrance, reception area and play space—features tools like bubble tubes and weighted vests to help children relax. Only one patient is scheduled at a time, easing stress.
About 300 of the clinic’s neurodivergent patients, most under 12 years old, use the sensory room. As part of a desensitization program, they return every three months, rather than the standard six, to build trust with providers. “We’re a regional resource for these children,” says Dr. Lauren Governale, the center’s director. In 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that one in 31 children may be affected by autism. People with autism and other developmental disabilities also face higher risks of dental problems—often tied to sensory sensitivities, from grinding to chewing on non-food objects.
The consequences can compound. Governale has seen how untreated dental pain can lead to malnutrition, anxiety and poor performance at school. In severe cases, infections can become life-threatening. “[Many families] can’t find dentists who want to spend the time [to treat their children],” says Ali Prosperi, the dental hygienist who oversees the sensory room. Some families drive two hours or more to reach the Naples clinic.
To bolster access, the clinic’s residency program trains emerging dentists to treat patients with special needs. Established in 2005 to address Collier County’s shortage of pediatric dentists, the program teaches doctors tell-show-do techniques, how to respond to nonverbal cues and deescalate stressful moments.
NCF expands care by helping bring providers into schools and funding a Miami sedation team that treats children with special needs at NCF Pediatric Dental Center and Healthcare Network clinics, shortening what was once a seven-month wait for care. Meanwhile, the center’s partnership with the Special Day Foundation reimburses patients for services, including fillings, crowns, extractions, orthodontic care and sedation.
Kate remembers taking Waylon to his first sensory room appointment last year. Waylon allowed a full exam, with no struggle or tears. X-rays revealed he needed two teeth pulled—a procedure complicated by his bleeding disorder, hemophilia A. Kate steeled herself for the emotional toll of navigating a system that often says no. “But at the NCF clinic, there was no ‘no,’” she says. “There was only, ‘We will help you.’”
The clinic worked with his hematologist at Golisano Children’s Hospital, ensuring the procedure could be performed safely with a child-life specialist providing emotional support. “For the first time in years, my son is no longer in pain,” Kate says. “His behavior, his mood, his appetite—all transformed because someone cared enough to create a space that sees him as a whole person, not just a diagnosis.” —S.B.B.
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
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Even routine exams can be difficult for young patients with autism, like Waylon Owens. NCF Pediatric Dental Center’s sensory room provides a safe space for oral care.
Immokalee's Heart of Care
The NCF Pediatric Health Center unites medical, dental and nutrition services under one roof in the center of town.
From its inception, NCF has sought not just to fund programs but to build systems of care. By bringing medical centers, nonprofits and providers together, the foundation ensures children don’t slip through service gaps.
Opened in fall 2024, the NCF Pediatric Health Center in Immokalee embodies the approach. A former location for The Shelter for Abused Women & Children, the facility now serves as a downtown hub for dental and vision care and behavioral health services. This year, it will also add occupational, physical and speech therapy services. The central location means families can stop in on a lunch break or between shifts, removing one of the biggest barriers to care in a community where 74% of households fall below the ALICE threshold (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed), meaning they work but still struggle to meet basic needs. And because proper nutrition is fundamental to children’s health, NCF partnered with Meals of Hope for the on-site pantry, where families can pick up healthy food to take home after appointments. —E.C.