[ISPHLT-SY3-1] The role of the child life specialist in the USA and Japan: the creation of a beautiful friendship
In 2001 Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital began performing heart transplants on patients who came to the United States from Japan. Since 2001 we have transplant more than 20 patients. As a child life specialist I have been a member of the multidisciplinary that has provided care to these patients when they have come abroad for transplantation. Child Life Specialists are trained professionals who help infants, youth, children and families cope with the stress and uncertainty of illness, injury and treatment. Child Life Specialists can be found both in free standing childrens hospitals as well as those that have pediatric wings within adult hospitals. This presentation will focus on how child life specialist in the United States worked with the child life specialists in Japan to provide continuity of care for the patients coming to the USA for transplantation. The presentation will outline the steps that both child life teams took from the moment that the medical teams confirmed that transplantation was happening. It will outline some tangible steps that medical and psychosocial teams can take to help patients cope with transferring to new facilities.
It is the hope that when the audience leaves this presentation they will understand how child life specialists both in their native country as well as abroad can help make hospitalization as least stressful as possible for both the medical teams and the families benefiting from the services being provided.
It is the hope that when the audience leaves this presentation they will understand how child life specialists both in their native country as well as abroad can help make hospitalization as least stressful as possible for both the medical teams and the families benefiting from the services being provided.