Reduces anxiety for children.
Participants in a preparation workshop for the emergency department (Photo: Yaki Friedman)
Almost every parent is familiar with a child's first meeting with doctors at the hospital, community clinic or emergency room.
Many times these encounters pass easily, but other times it is an encounter that can be traumatic for the child.
An extraordinary workshop prepares children and toddlers for their first visit to the emergency room, for the first time leaving the confines of the hospital and reaching schools and kindergartens.
This is a unique workshop called "Preparation for a visit to the emergency room" and mediates medical procedures for children using dolls.
The workshop is a unique workshop that aims to reduce anxiety in the children, make them cooperate with the medical team and make it easier for the parents.
The workshop was developed by the education team of the 'Haemek' medical center, which specializes in working with children who have to deal with medical procedures.
It takes place with the support of the Foundation for Encouraging Educational Initiatives, an organization that promotes initiatives of women and educators and helps implement them.
Until today, it was customary to deal with the typical challenges of a child who had already arrived at the hospital.
Now the initiative seeks to "advance a cure for the blow" and offers a charming method to reduce anxiety in children, this with the understanding that almost every child will visit the emergency room at least once during their childhood.
"Hospital for mischievous dolls" of the education team of the Emek Medical Center (photo: Ykki Friedman)
"We are a team of seven educators who deliver the workshop to the younger generation through experiential means that make the situation much less stressful and much more understandable," says Yikki Friedman, director of the educational center at the Emek Medical Center and the leader of the initiative.
"The way this is done is through puppets, with the content based on the great success of our previous initiative, a workshop for hospitalized children, called 'Puppet Hospital'."
Friedman explains that playing with the 'dolls' allows the child to express his inner world through an object taken from the world of imagination, and to go through a guided process of the common procedures he may encounter in the medical field.
"The highlight is the casting workshop, where the children get to cast their own bobby as little therapists. The early and friendly preparation that the workshop provides, with imaginary medical scenarios, dispels the fear of the unknown, helps the children gain a sense of control and ultimately makes them cooperate.
"Hospital for mischievous dolls" of the education team of the Emek Medical Center (photo: Ykki Friedman)
Plastering the injured dolls. Dobi plays with plaster (Photo: Yaki Friedman)
"Some parents ask me, 'Why does a child need to hear about medical concepts, diseases if there is no real need?'. We teach the parents how early preparation reduces anxiety," Friedman adds.
"Knowledge is power. Clear and true information reduces stress and anxiety in children. When we do this through the dolls, we actually make the knowledge accessible to them in their own language that is connected to their emotional world and the developmental stage they are in. Parents who told us about previous medical visits compared to visits after the workshop report An amazing improvement in their child's cooperation and in their overall experience as a family. It's simply exciting every time to hear how instead of a traumatic experience the child goes through an experience of competence that empowers him."
The workshop, which is delivered free of charge and with full volunteering by the staff, is currently expanding to more educational institutions as well as to special education, with the understanding that almost every child will visit the emergency department at least once in their childhood.
Yosef Dar, CEO of the Fund for Encouraging Educational Initiatives says that "Education teams are an asset of the iron sheep of Israeli society.
The foundation accompanies initiatives in all sectors and all types of education, it is exciting to see how the initiative of "preparation for a visit to the emergency department" leaves the walls of the school at the 'Emek' medical center and reaches the community.
The vision that the circles of initiative will expand is being realized before our eyes."
health
parenthood
child's health
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Hospital
Children
