 |
| TRAVELS WITH MY DINOSAUR 05 June - 05 August 2003 |
| Monday 9th June. When I called Child Life at Miami Children's this morning, I was not expecting an easy time to set something up at such short notice. However, I was able to visit this afternoon, and was given a tour of the Child Life services�. From the outside, the Mary Ann Knight International Institute of Paediatrics does not look particularly inviting, but walk inside and the greeting is bright, bold and colourful. "If you want a hospital that is child friendly" said my accompanying friend, "think Miami Children's". These words are praise indeed from Diane Shoopman. She knows more about this hospital than any parent would want to know, because her 4-year-old daughter, Mandi, received life-saving chemotherapy treatment here. Behind the main lobby's information desk, a large poster proclaims MCH nurses to be "lighting spirits and touching lives". They certainly lit up Mandi's spirit with the reception she was given on visiting the oncology unit - especially with the gift of a cute little teddy bear to take home. I was visiting Miami Children's Hospital to tour its child life services, those facilities which provide for the emotional, intellectual, and developmental needs of the young patients during their hospital stay - be it a couple of hours in the ER or several months on the oncology unit. The central hive of this activity can be found along a brightly painted corridor, where several eyecatching scenes blend into each other at various points. Here, a large play room and outdoor play area which is open for several hours each morning, afternoon and evening. The specific "opening hours" of the play rooms at MCH allow the child life specialists time to move around the wards to children who are not able to leave their rooms, and also ensure the hospital's young patients get sufficient rest-time. Currently, the play room is open-plan, but there are designs afoot for redevelopment with smaller, less intimidating partitions and an expansion of the boldly coloured baby mat area. An imaginative play area, aptly set out as a hospital, sits next to the baby mat, and there's a large arts and crafts area, and a Starbright Computer (Starbright Foundation is Steven a Spielburg charity which provides online communities and games for hospitalised and hosebound children). Nearby, a dedicated Starbright Room has several more computers where programs are directed by the Child Life team, and roving units can be taken to patients' rooms if they are not able to go to the computer. This naturally points to the fact that most patient rooms at MCH now have internet access points. Stepping through a rainbow in the sky next to the playroom, we entered the domain of Radio Lollipop. The first thing you notice s the d�cor - the studio is bedecked from floor to ceiling with artwork from former patients and their siblings - a wonderful, imaginative collage. This is one of only two Radio Lollipops in the USA (I will be visiting the other - in Texas - for a live broadcast in just under a month). The station is staffed by volunteers, airing for two hours each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening, and a connecting door to the playroom allows children to wonder to and fro at their leisure during those broadcasts - a station for the children, with the children! Aside from DJing on Radio Lollipop, volunteering opportunities are available in areas such as Bedside Pals, a programme primarily for High school and college students to take trolleys of toys and games to bed-bound children. Other volunteers visit with projects in the play room, pet therapy or entertainment performances such as regular visits from the Big Apple Circus clowns. Miami Children's Hospital is divided into specialist units and, in addition to the main play room, the Child Life team have play rooms on the individual units such a oncology, neurology and cardiology. As the treatments, limitations and needs of the children on these units are often unique to their diagnosis, each of the eight Child Life Specialists and two Child Life Assistants are encouraged to learn as much as they can about the specialist area to which they are attached, and the diagnoses they encounter. "Education is a key role for us, and we take it very seriously" says Sherisse Wormell, senior Child Life Specialist. Staff are given the opportunity to attend appropriate training sessions, and have access to a resource library where they can expand their knowledge base and understanding of different childhood illnesses. In line with the department's philosophy on education, they also support an internship programme for up to three Child Life students per semester. As well as supporting the hospitalised and outpatient child, Child Life at MCH recognises the unique needs of the siblings, and runs its own programme of monthly SibShops, enabling brothers and sisters to discuss their own feelings and concerns. Not only does this give these often-sidelined youngsters time and a place to feel a part of the process of their sibling's illness, but it enables them to interact with other children and teenagers experiencing similar situations and feelings. MCH recognises that young people have strong opinions, and that there is a need to allow its patients to speak up and let those opinions be known. So, three years ago the hospital created a platform for the collective voice of its young patients through the Kids Council. This 15member council comprises former patients and meets monthly to discuss issues it feels are of importance. Thus far, they have successfully implemented changes to the menu and serving of mealtimes, and had clocks fitted in all patient rooms. They have also raised funds for the hospital, and increased its profile within the Miami community. Just inside the oncology unit, another poster talks through the ABC of low blood counts, and further down the wall, a fantastic photographic display of present and former patients is headed up in giant cardboard cut-out letters as Our Heroes. The full length of the corridor outside is decorated with the mural of Thomas the Tank Engine, ice cream cones and other enticing images. As Diane, Sherisse and I talked of upcoming fundraising plans, I watched young Mandi dance up and down the hallway, totally entranced by the mural. Diane is Right - Miami is a child-friendly place. It's bright, colourful and inviting, ready to listen to the littlest voices and make the most unwelcoming of places feel like a playground. |