A Case for Child Life Programming: Parent and Sibling Perceptions

Date

2017

Authors

Pitman, Sarah

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Worldwide access

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Abstract

Child Life Programs in hospital settings work with patients and their families to lower stress and educate families about their healthcare experience; however, Child Life Programs are not available in many medical settings. This project examines the impact of Child Life Programming from a sibling and parent perspective through a case project method. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with sibling and parent dyads about their hospital experiences were conducted with two families. Family Resilience and Stress Theory and the concept of disenfranchised grief were the theoretical framework and lens through which this project was conducted. Although there was no way to manipulate the experiences of the participants, this project illustrates the importance of grief-informed and developmentally appropriate interventions in a hospital setting for holistic care for parents and siblings when a family system experiences stress and grief during diagnoses, treatment and death.

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