Hospital experience may be challenging for both children and their families. Pediatrics Department of Koç University has established
Happy Child, Happy Family Program, that will pioneer in this field in Turkey in order to support children and families better.
Happy Child, Happy Family Program is a child-oriented program created to help children and families, who visit the hospital, cope with various difficulties, diseases or physical injuries and it supplements treatments and services delivered at the hospital. Our team specialized in child development and medical procedures use Expressive Art Therapies and Play Therapy within scope of this program. Our program aims to reduce the stress load of diagnosis and treatment process, turn the hospital experience of children and families into a positive experience and prevent potential effects of chronic diseases, injuries and physical disabilities on development of the child. Under the roof of
Happy Child, Happy Family Program, diagnosis and treatment-oriented hospital game, expressive art therapies for emotional problems, voluntary activities managed by students and adults other than hospital staff and hospital classroom studies supported by Ministry of National Education are carried out. As a result of all these efforts, children’s quality of life at hospital is improved and they can more easily adapt to the life after hospitalization process. Our hospital that is awarded the title “Baby Friendly Hospital” aims to develop and set an example of the “Child Friendly Hospital” through this program.
What is Happy Child, Happy Family Program?
Happy Child, Happy Family Program is a child-oriented program created to help children and families, who visit the hospital, cope with various difficulties, diseases or physical injuries and it supplements treatments and services delivered at the hospital. Specialists, who have profound knowledge about development of children and medical procedures, performs interventions that aim to reduce the stress load of diagnosis and treatment process, turn the hospital experience of children and families into a positive experience and prevent potential effects of chronic diseases, injuries and physical disabilities on development of the child.
What is the age range served by our Happy Child, Happy Family Program?
Happy Child, Happy Family Program serves infants, children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years and their families.
Which departments do Happy Child, Happy Family Program cooperate with?
Specialists of Happy Child, Happy Family Program cooperates with everybody who deals with patients. They collaborate with families, doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel of the patient, social worker, mental health professionals and even teachers.
Which treatment methods are used in Happy Child, Happy Family Program?
Our specialists adopt holistic, eclectic, solution- and family-oriented approach. They use Expressive Art Therapies and Play Therapies.
How do therapeutic art and play therapies contribute to treatment of patients?
Children start expressing themselves with games and art (drawing pictures, dancing, music) before they start speaking. From developmental perspective, they spend most of their time with game and art that are their basic styles of learning. Specialists of Happy Child, Happy Family Program use therapeutic game and art to help patients cope with disease and hospital processes and to alleviate their anxiety. Thus, they use the methods that are more familiar to non-hospital life of children and less fearful for children.
Specialists create therapeutic relations with children, enable them express their concerns about hospital experience and support them to eliminate potential misperceptions about medical issues through therapeutic art and game oriented to objectives of personalized treatment. They may help children to normalize their hospital experiences and to cope with them better by making sense out of their experiences.
Which services are delivered by specialists of Happy Child, Happy Family Program?
- They provide the child with an opportunity to get familiar with the hospital before the procedure, answer their anxious questions in a calm environment and alleviate their anxieties.
- They explain diagnosis or treatment using words that can be understandable by the child.
- They determine personal needs of each child by cooperating with the treatment team.
- They educate the child on coping and relaxation techniques.
- They create a coping plan that can be used by the child during a medical test or procedure (surgery, imaging and pathology etc.).
- They support the child during and after a medical test or procedure.
- They use games to help the child understand medical procedure and express his/her emotions.
- They inform families about development of child and effects of diagnosis or treatment.
- They provide families and children with support to help them cope with death or losses.
- They support education and training at hospital class or room; they congratulate special days, such as birthday and festivals, and they try to stabilize the life as much as possible for children.
- They educate volunteers and recently hired specialists, who will organize activities with children, about working with children and they contribute to development of this field.
When is it appropriate to apply to Happy Child, Happy Family Program?
You may seek help from specialists of Happy Child, Happy Family Program, if your child tries to cope with any one of followings:
- Diagnosis of chronic disease
- Treatments requiring long-term hospital stay
- Emotional/social problems arising out of diagnosis or treatment
- Concerns, misperceptions about a procedure
- Pain
- Difficulty in expressing emotions and thoughts about the disease or hospital processes
- Progressive loss of control, despair, anxiety or unhappiness
You may seek help from specialists of Happy Child, Happy Family Program, if you try to cope with any one of followings:
- A chronic disease diagnosed in your child and explaining the disease to your child(ren)
- Difficulties arising out of long-term hospital stay with your child
- Emotional/social problems in family order due to diagnosis or treatment
- Your or your child’s anxieties and misperceptions about procedures
- Pain suffered by your child
- Progressive loss of control, despair, anxiety or unhappiness
- Problems/concerns about healthy child at home
- Sad news about treatments or possibility of death