The Kids Care program at Scarborough Health Network (SHN) brings together the top expertise, doctors, teams, programs, and clinics to offer families exceptional services closer to home.
This wide range of services features interdisciplinary professionals like Child Life Specialists, who play a crucial role in supporting paediatric patients and their families through their journey that may consist of tests, treatment, surgery, hospitalization, discharge home, and follow-up care.
This Child Life Month, we recognize our Child Life Specialists and the wealth of experience and compassion they bring to their work. They ensure that children receive the emotional and psychological support they need throughout their patient experience—which can make a world of difference, not only in reassuring the family, but to the child’s recovery as well.
SHN’s dedicated Child Life Specialists, Michele ClarkWard, Sue Regan, and Alex Frankel, work together to support the hundreds of families that come through our health network. Learn more about their specialized role in this Q-and-A!
What is it like to be a Child Life Specialist at SHN?
Sue: My more than 25 years at SHN has been marked by collaboration and growth. Working alongside Michele and Alex, we’ve built a strong foundation for Child Life services at our General and Centenary hospitals. It’s been a privilege to see the positive impact we have on families.
Michele: My time at SHN over the last 35 years has been incredibly rewarding. I’ve had the opportunity to see the growth of our Child Life program as SHN has developed our Kids Care centres of excellence, evolving to offer comprehensive services to best suit our paediatric patients’ needs.
Alex: Being a Child Life Specialist is very unique. I’ve been in this role for 14 years, and when I started out, most of the community didn’t even know about Child Life professionals. I’ve had the chance to educate parents and families about my role and the resources available to them to make hospitalization easier on their child.
How do you work with other healthcare staff to support patients?
Sue: Our interactions with healthcare staff are crucial. We work with patients in the emergency department (ED), operating room (OR), inpatient units, our many specialty clinics, and more, which means our services can be requested by any unit at any time. We provide pre-op preparation and support during procedures, ensuring that both the child and their family are comfortable. A key part of our role is to be ready at all times to collaborate with nurses, doctors, and other staff to ensure that our young patients’ needs are met.
Alex: We also participate in the meetings between medical staff and patients to learn about the prognosis and treatment plan. In doing so, we’re able to tailor our approach to the child and their family, and adapt our methods to provide the best possible comfort and reassurance.
What strategies do you use to help children cope while they’re at the hospital?
Sue: We help patients who are at the hospital for a number of reasons, but mostly, we focus on normalizing the hospital environment by providing familiar toys and activities. Simple actions like getting down to the child’s eye level and offering simple choices—like which flavour of juice they’d like to drink—can give the child a feeling of autonomy and control. This is helpful for kids who may be coming for their first visit to the Allergy Clinic, or especially for frequent patients, such as some of the children who receive treatment at SHN’s Paediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) Clinic or our Sickle Cell Disease Clinic at Centenary. By familiarizing the environment, they feel less intimidated when they return—some kids even look forward to coming.
Michele: We use play therapeutically and to divert attention away from healthcare experiences that can cause stress, like getting blood drawn or an IV started. Not only does this relax the child, it creates a space that they associate with fun and familiarity. We’re also well trained in quickly assessing each child’s developmental level and adjusting our approach accordingly.
Alex: Involving parents in the process is also essential, as it helps reduce their anxiety and improves the child’s overall experience. We meet children and families where they are at, which might necessitate different methods and accommodations based on the patient’s needs. If the parent has coping mechanisms specific to their child that are tried and true, we make sure to collaborate with them to make the child as comfortable as possible.
How do you communicate with parents who are feeling overwhelmed?
Michele: It’s important to acknowledge that for many families, this may be their first and only experience with hospitalization. For example, even though we’re accustomed to having thousands of kids go through surgery each year, it’s important for us to be in tune with each family’s stress level. We help parents by treating this like it’s their first time, every time, making them feel attended to and reminding them that their child’s care is in capable hands.
Sue: Having done this for so many years, I feel like we can identify a parent’s stress level very quickly. By acknowledging that it is normal to feel anxious about their child’s care, we can help them cope with that stress, which in turn makes the parent more capable of comforting their child.
How has the Child Life Specialist field evolved over the years?
Michele: When I started out, there were only a few Child Life Specialists in the GTA. Now, there is a whole network of us across hospital and community settings, and it’s great to be able to connect with other Child Life professionals to exchange experiences and knowledge.
Alex: People are also way more aware of our role now. Not only patients and families, but staff know more about the services we offer and how much of a difference we can make in a child’s care. As a result, Child Life Specialists are now involved in more aspects of patient care, from preparation for a test or procedure to recovery afterwards.
Sue: We appreciate how our profession is being recognized and valued. We’ve worked hard to establish our programs and ensure that they continue to thrive. It’s rewarding to see the positive impact we have on patients and their families, and I hope to continue developing and expanding our program to meet the community’s growing needs.
Michele, Alex, and Sue, are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of paediatric patients and their families. Their ability to navigate the emotional complexities of hospitalization and illness in children makes them invaluable members of the healthcare team. Through play, empathy, and unwavering dedication, they ensure that children and families are supported at every step in their healthcare journey at SHN.