Child Life Services
Child Life Services is a specialized support program within healthcare settings, provided by a team of Child Life Specialists and Child Life Assistants. This team works together to support children and families facing medical challenges, focusing on the emotional, developmental, and psychological needs of pediatric patients.
Child Life Services at El Paso Children’s Hospital
What is Child Life Services at El Paso Children’s Hospital?
Our team of provides comprehensive emotional and developmental support to children and their families during medical experiences. The team helps prepare children for procedures by explaining them in age-appropriate ways, reducing fear and anxiety. They use therapeutic play and distraction techniques to help children express their feelings, cope with stress, and manage pain.
Additionally, they offer guidance and comfort to parents and siblings, advocating for the child’s emotional and developmental needs within the healthcare setting. The specialists collaborate with medical staff to create individualized care plans that promote resilience, understanding, and a sense of control during challenging times, including support through grief and loss.
The Role of Play in Child Life Services
Play is a fundamental tool in Child Life Services because it helps children process their experiences, express emotions, and regain a sense of control during medical situations. Through therapeutic play, Child Life Specialists create a safe space where children can explore their feelings, learn about their illness or treatments in a non-threatening way, and practice coping skills. Play also serves as a distraction during procedures, reducing pain and anxiety. Beyond just fun, play supports normal development and helps children feel empowered and understood, which is crucial for their emotional well-being throughout their healthcare journey.
What Services Do Child Life Specialists Provide?
At the El Paso Children’s Hospital Blood and Cancer Center, we have the tools, techniques, team and experience to treat most forms of pediatric cancer. Types of cancer we treat at El Paso Children’s Hospital include:
Prepare for Treatments and Procedures
Children process worry, stress and pain differently than adults, which can make being in the hospital, treatments and recovery especially frightening and confusing. Child Life Specialists are trained in techniques that can help kids understand what’s happening, the steps being taken to help them get better and why those treatments are necessary. That includes being skilled at explaining complex procedures and medical equipment in age-appropriate ways that make sense to younger children.
Family Support
Structured and guided by the Child Life team at El Paso Children’s Hospital, therapeutic play activities can help hospitalized children reduce stress and anxiety, express their feelings, learn coping strategies, practice their role in upcoming medical procedures or tests and feel more secure and in control during a very stressful episode in any child’s life.
Emotional Support for Patients
Child Life Specialists are trained to listen to the concerns of children and provide emotional support, giving hospitalized kids a safe outlet to express their worries and fears. Specialists also teach children success-proven, techniques and strategies to help them cope with complex feelings during a serious illness or a stay in the hospital.
Enzo, Spreading Smiles One Tail Wag at a Time
Enzo is the first full-time pediatric therapy dog in our region!
A hospital therapy dog is a friendly, gentle dog who visits patients and families in the hospital to bring comfort, joy, and companionship. Spending time with a therapy dog can make the hospital feel less scary, help patients relax, and even brighten a tough day. Many families, patients, and staff look forward to therapy dog visits because they bring smiles, comfort, and a little bit of home into the hospital setting.
Enzo works alongside us five days a week, eight hours a day, filling our hospital with comfort, smiles, and endless tail wags. From brightening a patient’s day to giving our staff a much-needed boost of love, he reminds us just how healing a furry friend can be.
When he’s off duty, Enzo loves chasing the ball with Dad and (of course) enjoying home-cooked treats.
Contact Child Life Services
Helping kids and their families is the number one priority for the Child Life Services team at El Paso Children’s Hospital. If your child is currently hospitalized or has an upcoming hospital stay, or if you need help explaining a complex pediatric illness or upcoming medical procedure in a way your child or their siblings can understand, please contact us today.
El Paso Children’s Hospital Multispecialty Center
1223 N Lee Trevino Drive
El Paso, TX 79907
Phone: 915-242-8493
Fax: 915-242-8397
