Child life specialists play a crucial role in pediatric hospitals and healthcare settings, providing essential support and care for children and their families. Their primary goals are to minimize the stress and anxiety associated with healthcare experiences, promote positive coping mechanisms, and enhance the overall well-being of young patients and their families.
They are vital members of the healthcare team, playing a crucial role in reducing the negative impact of hospitalization on children and their families, while promoting positive healthcare experiences and overall well-being.
At Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, child life specialists work in hospital departments where there are kids. This includes the pediatric floor, the pediatric intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, emergency room, orthopedics, medical imaging, surgery, and anywhere else where a child may experience anxiety or stress. Child life specialists use nonpharmaceutical pain management, such as distractions, breathing techniques, and relaxing imagery to help the youth feel at ease.
There are several reasons why child life specialists are beneficial in hospital settings:
Emotional support: They offer comfort, compassion, and emotional support to children facing difficult or unfamiliar medical procedures, which helps alleviate fear and anxiety.
Age-appropriate communication: They facilitate effective communication between the medical team, children, and their families, providing age-appropriate explanations of procedures, diagnoses, and treatments to ensure better understanding and cooperation.
Coping strategies: Through therapeutic play, art, and other activities, child life specialists help children develop coping mechanisms, express their feelings, and normalize their hospital experience.
Family support: They support and educate families, empowering them to actively participate in their child’s care and promoting effective coping strategies for the entire family unit.
Advocacy: They advocate for children’s emotional, developmental, and psychosocial needs within the healthcare system, promoting a patient and family-centered approach.
When to Call Child Life: When your child is:
- Having bloodwork done and would benefit from distraction tools
- Having a procedure done and you are not sure how to explain it to them
- Experiencing a death or major illness in your family and is struggling to understand
- Being hospitalized and is anxious about it
- Just got a new diagnosis and you don’t know how to talk about it
- Getting a cast
- Getting medical imagining done (MRI, X-Ray, Ultrasound, etc.)
- anxious about anything medical
Tessa Worgull, child life specialist, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center says it best, “The next time you and your little one are in a hospital setting ask about a child life specialist, they could help you as much as they will help your kiddo. We are here to help; we want to connect with your child with the goal of relaxing them so the healthcare team can accomplish their goals.”