Opening Windows on the World for Pediatric Patients
Investing large parts of their childhood in and out of the hospital, St. Joseph's Children’s sickest patients can view a hospital’s walls as barriers to a normal childhood. St. Joseph's Children's Child Life Specialists help make these walls seem invisible by helping kids understand their illnesses and procedures, and by providing them with activities that inspire independence and confidence. The Child Life team help patients view their illnesses and hospital stay as secondary to enjoying the thrills of a normal childhood filled with social activities and holiday festivities. They achieve this in so many ways. From interactive story time to playing doctor for a day, and from holiday crafts to play with a special medical procedures doll.

What do Child Life Specialists Do?
The Child Life team offers preparation for medical procedures, developmentally appropriate activities and emotional support during treatment. This work is crucial to a child’s emotional health because medical settings can be a new, unfamiliar world for children, with the potential for them to develop fears and misconceptions. The Child Life specialists use many techniques to help a child adjust to the hospital experience and to maintain a normal lifestyle. Children who feel “at home” are less anxious and more likely to recover quickly.

Our certified Child Life Specialist have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in fields such as child development, recreation therapy, education, and child psychology. They specialize in working with children in health care settings, specifically helping children understand and cope emotionally with the medical experience.

Services for patients and families include:

• Age appropriate and recreational activities in playrooms, teen lounges, and at the bedside
• Therapeutic play including “medical play”
• Pet Therapy
• Psychological preparation for medical tests, procedures and surgeries
• Support, pain management and coping education for medical procedures
• Orientation to new experiences, such as admission to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
• Community outreach, such as school re-entry visits
• Closed circuit TV, such as live broadcast BINGO
• Day surgery preparation tours
• Sibling support
• Grief support for patients and siblings
• Volunteer orientation, training and supervision
• Interdisciplinary staff education to support developmentally appropriate, psychosocially sound and family-centered pediatric health care

For more information, please contact the Child Life Department at (813) 554-8155.