Eye on Health: Child Life Specialists ease hospital fears for young patients at Memorial Hospital

A medical procedure or trip to the emergency room can be intimidating for anyone, but for children, these experiences can be particularly scary. That’s why Beacon Children’s Hospital and Memorial Hospital of South Bend offer specialized services from a role you might not have heard of before: the Child Life Specialist.

These dedicated professionals help young patients, and their families, cope with difficult medical experiences, serving as compassionate guides throughout their hospital stay. Child Life Specialists use therapeutic play, engaging activities and child-friendly explanations to transform the sometimes scary hospital setting into something more recognizable and comforting.

In our latest WSBT Eye on Health, Chloe Taylor demonstrates how these techniques significantly reduce anxiety for children in the Memorial Hospital emergency department. “I love seeing on a kid’s face when they accomplish something that was just so scary for them,” Chloe shares.

As the region’s only hospitals offering these specialized services at no cost to families—supported entirely through community donations—we are making a meaningful difference for children and their families during hospital visits.

“Pediatric nurses try to be as compassionate and comforting to children when they’re in the hospital as possible, but when we added the Child Life team it really helped us to learn to speak a different language,” says Jen Tonkovich, Director of Women, Children and Spiritual Services at Memorial Hospital.

The goal is to decrease fear and anxiety so children aren’t afraid during their stay or to return to the hospital. Hear much more from Chloe about the role of the Child Life Specialist and what it means to our young patients.

Learn more

Find information about the special events offered by the Child Life program at Beacon Children’s Hospital and additional details about our team on our Beacon website.