Getting Better Together

Fear is often seen as something “negative”, which needs to be removed or denied. But fear also plays a very important role in the development of a young mind, as it helps to adapt to the environment and to transform it in order to prevent danger.
In the first part of this lecture we will analyze the meaning and sources of hospital related fear in children, and present the common worries of a sample of healthy schoolchildren toward a hypothetical hospitalization.
In the second part of this presentation we will give some guidelines to develop educational activities that can help children understand, accept and master their fears related to the hospital and medical treatment.
This session will end with two activities whose goal is to help teachers to create some programs they can employ at their own local community and hospital schools.

WORKSHOP 1: The hospital as a community resource
A program for “normal” school and healthy children

The hospital can become a focus for a school visit. Healthy schoolchildren can have a trip to the hospital and learn about people, jobs, procedures, objects but also reflect on feelings and relationships connected to this particular institution.

Guide questions:
- How could we organize such program?
- What type of methodology should we use to involve the children and the medical staff?
- What collaboration should a local school activate in order to carry it on?
- What would be the role of the hospital school teacher?
- What kind of cognitive, emotional and behavioural objectives should be set for such activities?
- What connections are possible with integrating different subjects (geography, language, math, etc)?

WORKSHOP 2: The hospital as an ecological context
Guidelines and activities to make the hospital less intimidating for the sick children

It is very difficult to face and hold fear once it appears in a child. But a lot can be done on the preventative side. A very important role is played by the organization in providing a positive environment.
The teacher, as an educator, can act as an advocate for the development of the “healthy part of every child” and use his work inside the caring team for the development of a positive social, emotional and physical environment.
Using some inputs from the ecological theory of the Human development the objectives of this workshop are to develop activities that can help a sick child to:
- Understand the hospital environment (routines, machines, people, medical objects, etc).
- Express and share his feelings.
- Create positive relationships with the medical staff.

Guide questions:
- What positive active roles, activities and relationships can a child play during a hospital stay?
- How can we, as teachers, help a child to understand the environment both on a cognitive and an emotional level?
- How can we help medical staff to develop positive relationships with the children and the family while hospitalized?