Ethans – child life services

Child life is a psycho-social service, and here in our Childrens Hospital we’re treating the whole child, so not just medically, but psychosocially as well. And what happens is that hospitalization can be a stress on children and on families, so our main goal is to alleviate the stress and anxiety of hospitalization for children and their families, because we are practicing family centered care, and to provide opportunities for optimal growth and development while the child is here in the hospital. 

Family centered care means that we are treating the whole family, so when we are treating a child, we are including their family members. The parent or the caregiver is the expert on the child. That means that we the healthcare professionals are collaborating with the parent or the caregiver about the care of their child. That means that we are giving them information in a timely and easy to understand manner, and including them and asking them questions, and keeping them apprised.  

What we really want to do with the child in the hospital is as much normalization as possible, and of course their family is a huge part of that, so it’s really important that parents or caregivers, and their siblings can come and visit the patient as much as possible because that’s normal, and that’s just keeping with their regular routine.