Editor's Note: Every March is Child Life Month, which is a wonderful spotlight for awareness on the field of Child Life. As part of our celebration, More Than Medicine will "spotlight" child life specialists from various areas of Le Bonheur Children's. Today's post spotlights a child life service that focuses on helping the entire family.

by Jamie Droke
Child Life Specialist

For the final full week of March which is National Child Life Month I want to spotlight a service that child life specialists provide that is especially near and dear to my heart. Probably the service I spend most of my day providing is today’s spotlight: Family Support. Since I work in the Intensive Care Unit, many of my children are too ill to engage in play or distraction, but because of the severity of their illnesses or injuries, their parents and other family members often need extra support. Family support is not something that is only provided in the critical care areas, though. Specialists all over the hospital provide family support on a daily basis in several different ways. For today I will highlight three different ways that we work to support families.

Child Life provides emotional support for parents, siblings and extended family members while they have a loved one in the hospital. Sometimes having a child in the hospital is harder than being in the hospital yourself. We recognize that sometimes parents or family members just need someone to listen to their concerns and validate their feelings. Child Life Specialists aim to help family members feel more comfortable and increase their understanding of the hospital environment. We also acknowledge that when we are under intense stress or have missed hours upon hours of sleep we are unable to process information as effectively as usual. Specialists work with families to communicate important medical information about their child in a way they can understand and make appropriate decisions.

The second area of family support is support we provide to certain family members: sibling support. In order to help siblings cope with the patient’s hospitalization, a Child Life Specialist provides age appropriate preparation for siblings to come visit the hospital.  Preparation generally includes pictures and education about the child’s illness, medical equipment and changes in appearance. This preparation is especially crucial in our critical care areas where physicians utilize unfamiliar and potentially scary medical equipment in caring for a patient. Without this preparation, siblings or other young family members could easily be overwhelmed and afraid. In situations when a patient receives a new diagnosis, Child Life Specialists explain the diagnosis to siblings in a way they can understand.

If a patient is very critically ill and not able to recover from an illness or injury, Child Life Specialists provide bereavement support to families during a death, or pending death, of a loved one. Child Life can provide the family with opportunities for making memories, resources on coping with death, and how to explain death to siblings. Child Life Specialists are often present throughout this time to offer additional emotional to parents, siblings, and other family members.

These three areas are the general areas where family support is provided. Of course, in every way, we strive to provide patient AND family centered care to all of our patients and families. And now a question for all of you reading out there…if you have ever had a loved one in the hospital, was there anything that anyone did, or anything you wish someone would have done that would have been helpful and supportive to you? We are always looking for ways to better support our families!