Huntsville Hospital Child Life
Whether it be for an injury or chronic sickness, the hospital can be a scary place for children. Along with the typical medical tools used to treat little patients, Huntsville Hospital’s Child Life program brings in a whole new retinue of things to make their treatment easier: namely toys.
Huntsville Hospital’s Arts in Medicine, Canines for Coping, Child Life, and Music Therapy Programs are about more than a patient being bored, enjoying music, or liking dogs. Imagine a child scared of needles who just found out he will have to get “pokes” multiples times every day for the rest of his life, a teen being told she has cancer, parents who had to start CPR on their child prior to the ambulance arriving, or a sister who is asking why she only got a broken leg while her brother died in the car crash.
These patients and families are just a few examples of how being sick or injured affects more than just the physical body; it affects everyone emotionally and socially as well. Huntsville Hospital cares not only about the physical well-being of the patients and families but also recognizes the social and emotional factors impacting medical care and healing. This is the specialty for the Arts in Medicine, Canines for Coping, Child Life, & Music Therapy programs. This department focuses on the psycho-social factors that affect patients and families during hospitalization. All 4 of these programs work together with the medical team, patients, and families to provide explanations in understandable words, identify coping strategies, encourage creative expression, offer emotional support, and help meet medical goals through play, music, and art.
The Child Life Program has Certified Child Life Specialists who are specifically trained in child development and use a variety of research-based interventions to support infants through teenagers, caregivers, and siblings throughout their hospitalization. From stitches and IVs to chronic illness and grief situations, patients and families often feel a variety of emotions when in the hospital. In these moments, a child life specialist can step in with the education and skills needed to help make the most difficult moments more manageable. They work in all areas of Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children that provide care to pediatric patients and also provide intermittent support for children of adult patients at Huntsville Hospital Main. It may often appear like “just playing” to those watching, but there is always a purpose behind the actions of the child life specialist. It is not uncommon to see a Certified Child Life Specialist helping a patient become less scared of procedures by shooting paint out of a syringe at a canvas, correcting misconceptions through putting an IV in a play doll, or playing games to achieve medical goals like swallowing a pill or walking a certain distance.
Children communicate through their play and depend on it to develop physically, emotionally, and socially. Through play, child life specialists use their training to assess a child’s developmental level, his or her understanding of medical experiences, and psycho-social factors such as previous experiences, the environment, family variables, and diagnoses that may affect the child’s ability to cope. The child life specialist partners with patients and families to create a coping plan and then helps to empower them to use positive coping skills during challenging times. Child life specialists are often present during procedures or assessments because when a patient is calmer and more cooperative, it can improve efficiency and accuracy while also decreasing the negative impacts of the experience. They can help with pain management, provide support to patients and caregivers, assist with finding the most comfortable position for the patient, and give appropriate choices for a sense of control. They also provide education to children and teenagers in words that make sense to them based on their developmental level and help to prepare them for procedures or for visiting a loved one in the ICU. Child life specialists can use crafts, games, and toys to decrease fear, encourage emotional expression, and to allow patients to continue to feel like kids and teens even while in the hospital environment. The Child Life Program coordinates guest visitors like superheroes, athletes, or characters for fun experiences as well as the dedicated volunteers who bring their specially trained pets for pet therapy where patients can have social visits to bring comfort and smiles. In addition to these special events, group activities in the playrooms and bedside crafts or play are led by the child life assistant. Child Life also helps organize holiday celebrations to allow patients the opportunity to still experience some of the events they may be missing out on during their hospital stay. To learn more about the Child Life Program and services offered, visit https://www.hhwomenandchildren.org/child-life-program”
https://www.hhwomenandchildren.org/child-life-program
The Arts in Medicine (AIM) Program combines a variety of forms of art to encourage expression and healing in the hospital. AIM uses literary, music, visual, and performing arts as well as environmental design. The arts benefit patients by aiding in their physical, mental, and emotional recovery, including relieving anxiety and decreasing the perception of pain. In an atmosphere where the patient often feels out of control, the arts can serve as a therapeutic and healing tool, reducing stress and loneliness and providing opportunities for self-expression. Art also has the power to communicate and educate, giving it a growing role of significance in the halls of Huntsville Hospital. In addition, research shows that the arts can reduce patients’ use of pain medication and length of stay in the hospital, and improve compliance with recommended treatments.
As the program grows, more adult and pediatric patients and their families are benefiting from this program. Craft and art projects including painting, drawing, journaling, and jewelry-making are available to patients for creative expression. AIM also organizes visits from local artists, musicians, and storytellers. Local artists have painted murals and created artwork that can be seen throughout the hospital, and the patient art gallery and other art exhibits rotate with new artwork as well. Additional information and contacts for Arts in Medicine can be found at https://www.hhwomenandchildren.org/arts-in-medicine”https://www.hhwomenandchildren.org/arts-in-medicine
The Music Therapy Program uses music as a tool to address the physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive needs of patients, families and caregivers. Music therapy programs are based on assessment, treatment planning, and ongoing program evaluation. Benefits are described in medical, and not musical, terms. Music Therapists are trained to use music as a way to meet medical goals such as decreasing pain, anxiety, depression, or helping regulate a patient’s vital signs. They also help with emotional expression and coping skills through song writing, creating music, improvisation and analyzing song lyrics. Interventions are created for the individual needs of patients. For instance, in the Neonatal ICU, the music therapist uses research-based pacifiers with musical accompaniment to encourage sucking needed for feeding and self-soothing. Music therapists can also assist during procedures, comfort at the end-of-life, as well as grief and bereavement situations. To learn more about the Music Therapy Program, go to https://www.huntsvillehospitalfoundation.org/what-we-do/our-programs/musictherapy”
https://www.huntsvillehospitalfoundation.org/what-we-do/our-programs/musictherapy.
Canines for Coping is Huntsville Hospital’s facility dog program that provides care to patients, families, and hospital staff through two fully-trained service dogs. The facility dog handlers, who are child life specialists, have specific training to assess the facility dogs’ cues as well as the psycho-social needs of patients and families to assist with coping and support in each specific situation. The range of work that our dogs help with is wide, and varies day to day. Our facility dogs can be utilized during difficult conversations and at the time of a patient’s death to provide emotional support for patients and families through comforting touch and unconditional regard. When children need to have a procedure, our handlers prepare them by safely demonstrating with the facility dog what will happen. This includes showing patients how to wear an anesthesia mask, how to lie in a CT or MRI scanner, and what the steps leading up to getting a “poke” are like. Our facility dogs are also present during procedures to help give patients confidence to stay still and to comfort them when they are feeling pain or fear. Other ways our facility dogs help include encouraging children to take medicine they need, motivating patients to go for a walk for the first time after surgery, and participating with kids during their physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions. The facility dogs can also lie in bed with patients who are anxious or in pain as a way to help them cope and can offer comfort to expectant mothers who are on bedrest for months. To learn more about the work that our Canines for Coping program is doing or to support our dogs financially, visit https://www.huntsvillehospitalfoundation.org/caninesforcoping”
https://www.huntsvillehospitalfoundation.org/caninesforcoping or follow along on Instagram at hh_caninesforcoping.
