Child life specialist

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Doctor visits can be scary experiences, and research has shown that stress can be extremely detrimental to a patient in their ability to heal, so child life specialists work with patients, their family and others involved in the child’s care in order to help them manage stress and understand medical and healthcare procedures.

What is a child life specialist?

A child life specialist is a professional traditionally employed in the hospital setting. She or focuses on the psychosocial development of children, and encourages effective coping strategies for children and their families under stress. Child life specialists recognize individuality in patients, and use a range of developmentally appropriate activities, including play, preparation for a medical procedure, education, self-expression, and family support to help cope with hospitalization, illness, or death and dying. These professionals are trained to take into account the cognitive, emotional, and physical development of each child in order to encourage optimum development of children facing a challenging experience, particularly one relation to healthcare and hospitalization.

Services

Child Life Specialists collaborate with parents and other healthcare professionals to meet the distinct needs of children in managing the effects of stress and trauma. Understanding that a child’s wellbeing depends on the support of the family, they provide information, support and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family members. Services that a child life specialist provides include:

Psychological preparation for tests, surgeries, and other medical procedures
Support during medical procedures
Therapeutic medical and recreational play
Activities to support/enhance normal growth and development
Sibling support
Support for grief and bereavement
Emergency room interventions
Hospital pre-admission tours
Outpatient consultation with families
Educate caregivers, administrators, and the general public about the needs of children under stress

Child life specialists work with patients and families in many settings, such as inpatient units, surgical areas, outpatient clinics, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Emergency Department, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Although child life specialists typically function in the hospital setting, their skills make them especially trained to support children and families in other settings, such as hospice, dental care, schools, specialized camps, funeral homes, or wherever children face experience stress or trauma. In each of these areas, child life interventions focus on the individual needs of the child and family.

Child Life Certification

The child life profession can be challenging and competitive. It is one that demands excellence, as they are responding to a number of different and complex issues by applying their unique accumulation of knowledge and skills in healthcare settings and elsewhere. Thus, it's important for child life specialists to have a basic mastery of child development and the initiative to learn to skills as they become increasingly valuable to their organizations.

Certification Requirements The Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) credentialing program is a rigorous, examination-based professional certification credential. Certified child life specialists have earned a Bachelor's or Master's degree, with an educational background that includes human growth and development, education, psychology, and counseling. They are required to complete a 480-hour clinical internship program and a rigorous application and examination process. Child Life Specialists are certified through a program administered by the by the Child Life Council (CLC), and they adhere to a code of ethics and standards established by that council.

Vision Statement

"The profession of child life will continue to meet the needs of infants, children, youth and families in times of stressful or traumatic life events and situations. The philosophy and practice of child life will be applicable to any health care setting and transferable to other environments or situations in which the potential for infants, children and youth to cope, learn and master is placed at risk. The services provided by the child life profession will be holistic and will utilize applied child development and family systems theory. The objectives of such services will be to minimize the negative impact of situational disruptions while maintaining individual growth and development and family relationships." - The Child Life Council

External links

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Last updated on Friday February 22, 2008 at 10:10:26 PST (GMT -0800)
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