BATON ROUGE — Several LSU student-athletes will participate in the annual “Child Life Month” luncheon at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital on Wednesday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
The student-athletes will be helping to serve lunch and visiting with families and child patients in the Pediatrics Ward at the hospital.
Child life specialists are professionals devoted to making a child’s healthcare experience as understandable and close to normal life as possible. In March, child life professionals will be celebrating their profession and highlighting the interventions and support they provide to children, their siblings and their parents during “Child Life Month 2004”.
Child life specialists provide psychosocial care to infants, children, youth and their families. Using play, education and self-expression to promote psychological well-being and optimum development, they work to reduce the impact of stressful or traumatic life events and situations, which affect overall health and development.
A goal of Child Life Month is to educate the public that Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital and more than 400 other institutions across North America and around the world offer child life services because they care deeply about humanizing the healthcare experience for children and families. From the emergency department to the neonatal intensive care unit; dentist offices to early intervention programs; serving children with minor illnesses and injuries to chronic, critical and terminal illnesses, child life specialists explain procedures and help children and their families master stressful situations.