Texas Children’s Child Life Department hosted its annual “Teddy Bear Clinic” March 3 on The Auxiliary Bridge. Patients and families received a free stuffed animal to use as their patient while visiting various stations for check-ups, X-rays and other exams, with the goal of learning more about hospital procedures.
Texas Children’s Child Life department provides developmental, educational and therapeutic interventions for children undergoing medical treatment. Child Life services help children effectively manage stress, which reduces the need for sedatives and pain medications and helps children heal faster with less long-term psychological effects.
With more than 40 child life professionals, Texas Children’s has one of the largest Child Life departments in the country. Child life specialists are professionals who have studied normal child development and the reactions of children to health care settings. The Child Life department has activity coordinators who maintain hospital playrooms, provide bedside play opportunities and facilitate special events to help normalize the environment and promote developmentally appropriate play in all areas of the hospital. In addition, the Child Life department has a very active library for children and families where there are many programs provided from the community. There also is a partnership with HISD to provide educational opportunities for those patients that have long hospitalizations.
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