Child Life in Hospitals

Book excerpt: By Richard H. Thompson, Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin, and Gene Stanford, Children's Hospital, Buffalo, New York. With a Foreword by Jerriann Myers Wilson. Child life services include providing emotional support, structuring therapeutic play programs, psychologically preparing children for medical procedures, enhancing the hospital environment, and acting as the child's and parents' advocate. This book covers them all. It begins by describing the provision of these services in a typical case and by reviewing the relevant literature. The authors then discuss parents' needs and parent involvement, the hospital play program, and ways in which the hospital environment contributes to children's reactions. Equally thorough information is presented on the relationship of child life to other disciplines; supervision of volunteers, students and staff; and the development of a child life program. The text's balance of tools, techniques and guidelines makes it valuable not only to child life specialists, but also to nurses, occupational and recreational therapists, social workers, and other hospital personnel.