All children experience stress, whether normally developing or children dealing with traumatic events, such as surgery, illness, hospitalization, rehabilitation, death of a loved one. At some point in childhood, children need help bolstering inner resources when they have to face inescapable, stressful events.
Times of challenge require caregivers to offer coping strategies beyond everyday activities. Life skills that are different from distraction methods.
This course aims to teach pediatric health care professionals the why, when and how to support pediatric patients undergoing stressful procedures. Participants will recognize how their own health attitudes, beliefs and habits effect, not only their own well-being, but also the children in their care. Taking a developmental approach, we will learn how to address the needs of each age group to help children help themselves: • Manage stress • Decrease pain
Participants will practice the most effective array of mind/body healing strategies combined with expressive arts tools. Participants will identify and understand the underlying emotional issue as it relates to the cognitive developmental level of the child. Drawing from evidence-based psychobiology research that demonstrates the power of an image held in the mind, effecting the body to more recent new brain research in neuroplasticity,, participants will utilize innovative strategies for self-care and patient care. In short, participants will learn the framework for delivering mind/body services to pediatric patients and which techniques are best to match the child’s age, physical condition, and emotional availability so that the learning and mastery of these coping skills can be lifeenhancing. This course is designed to assist children in learning new coping strategies and effective relaxation techniques which are powerful tools for health promotion. These tools provide the health care professional a suite “easy to use” directions and state of the art methods including iPhone, iPad apps, mp3, and pre-recordings. When regular practice is established, benefits include: - Patient satisfaction - Patient cooperation - Easy to use - Child can self-start - Decreases fear and anxiety - Reduces physical and mental stress - Strengthens sense of control - Fosters positive mental attitude - Enhances self-esteem