Clown Care, also known as hospital clowning, is a program in health care facilities involving visits from specially trained clowns. They are colloquially called "clown doctors" which is a trademarked name in several countries. These visits to hospitals have been shown to help in lifting patients' moods with the positive power of hope and humor. There is also an associated positive benefit to the staff and families of patients. [1]
Patch Adams, considered the first hospital clown, started being a hospital clown in the 1970s. He was portrayed in the 1998 film Patch Adams by Robin Williams, bringing attention to hospital clowning. [2]
Professional Clown Doctors began working in hospitals in 1986 under a program called the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit, which was started by Michael Christensen in New York City. Clown Doctor programs now operate in every state in Australia, New Zealand, [3] the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Hong Kong, Brazil, Belarus, Taiwan [4] and all over Europe and in some parts of India. [2]
Clown Doctors attend specifically to the psycho-social needs of the hospitalized child but in some hospitals they also visit adults. [5] They parody the hospital routine to help children adapt to their surroundings, they also distract from and demystify painful or frightening procedures. [6] The atmosphere of fun and laughter can help children forget about the illness and the stress for a moment.
Clown Doctors use techniques such as magic, music, storytelling and other clowning skills to empower children with doses of fun that help them deal with the range of emotions they may experience while in hospital: fear, anxiety, [7] [8] loneliness, boredom.
According to Tan, Metsälä, and Hannula, [9] "Clown care creates a positive emotional state, promotes interaction between parents and child, and fosters affirmative environmental conditions."
Research on the physiological health benefits of laughter has been conducted for decades and continues to be carried out by medical physicians internationally. There is also a growing group of researchers that are exploring the psychological benefits of laughter, and specifically the work of Clown-Doctors. [10] [11] [12]
Humour or humor is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours, controlled human health and emotion.
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions, to alter bodily functions, to reconstruct or improve aesthetics and appearance, or to remove unwanted tissues or foreign bodies.
Hypochondriasis or hypochondria is a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness. Hypochondria is an old concept whose meaning has repeatedly changed over its lifespan. It has been claimed that this debilitating condition results from an inaccurate perception of the condition of body or mind despite the absence of an actual medical diagnosis. An individual with hypochondriasis is known as a hypochondriac. Hypochondriacs become unduly alarmed about any physical or psychological symptoms they detect, no matter how minor the symptom may be, and are convinced that they have, or are about to be diagnosed with, a serious illness.
An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of patients who present without prior appointment; either by their own means or by that of an ambulance. The emergency department is usually found in a hospital or other primary care center.
Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, usually audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter can rise from such activities as being tickled, or from humorous stories, imagery, videos or thoughts. Most commonly, it is considered an auditory expression of a number of positive emotional states, such as joy, mirth, happiness or relief. On some occasions, however, it may be caused by contrary emotional states such as embarrassment, surprise, or confusion such as nervous laughter or courtesy laugh. Age, gender, education, language and culture are all indicators as to whether a person will experience laughter in a given situation. Other than humans, some other species of primate show laughter-like vocalizations in response to physical contact such as wrestling, play chasing or tickling.
Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimising quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes palliative care as
"an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual".
Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams is an American physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute as a not-for-profit in 1989. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other people.
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the healthcare program of the VA through a nationalized healthcare service in the United States, providing healthcare and healthcare-adjacent services to veterans through the administration and operation of 146 VA Medical Centers (VAMC) with integrated outpatient clinics, 772 Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC), and 134 VA Community Living Centers Programs. It is the largest division in the department, and second largest in the entire federal government, employing over 350,000 employees. All VA hospitals, clinics and medical centers are owned by and operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and all of the staff employed in VA hospitals are federal employees. Because of this, veterans that qualify for VHA healthcare do not pay premiums or deductibles for their healthcare but may have to make copayments depending on the medical procedure. VHA is not a part of the US Department of Defense Military Health System.
Some people have a fear of medical procedures at some point in their lifetime, which can include the fear of surgery, dental work, doctors, or needles. These fears are seldom diagnosed or treated, as they are often extinguished into adulthood and do not often develop into phobias preventing individuals from seeking medical attention. Formally, medical fear is defined as "any experience that involves medical personnel or procedures involved in the process of evaluating or modifying health status in traditional health care settings."
Preoperational anxiety, or preoperative anxiety, is a common reaction experienced by patients who are admitted to a hospital for surgery. It can be described as an unpleasant state of tension or uneasiness that results from a patient's doubts or fears before an operation.
The Teddy Bear Hospital Project (TBHP) is an international medical initiative organized by the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) and the European Medical Students' Association (EMSA) that aims to reduce children's fears of medical procedures and staff. It originated in Norway in 2000 and by 2006 had spread to 28 countries. With the support of parents, teachers, and doctors, it is organized and run primarily by medical students.
Nicklaus Children's Hospital formerly known as Miami Children's Hospital is a hospital for children in South Florida. The hospital has 289 beds. It is affiliated with the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, and St. George's University and is a member of Nicklaus Children's Health System. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to pediatric patients aged 0–21 throughout South Florida. Nicklaus Children's Hospital features the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the region, and 1 of 3 in the state. It has 650 attending physicians and over 130 pediatric sub-specialists. Nicklaus Children's Hospital was one of the largest employers in Miami-Dade County in 2014 with over 3,500 employees.
Neil Barnett Shulman was an American doctor and medical writer, who was an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Emory University. He conducted and published clinical research on hypertension and was the co-founder of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks. He was also the author of many books promoting medical literacy for both adults and children, as well as humour and children's books. He was the associate producer of the 1991 film Doc Hollywood, based on one of his books.
Balance billing, sometimes called surprise billing, is a medical bill from a healthcare provider billing a patient for the difference between the total cost of services being charged and the amount the insurance pays. It is a pervasive practice in the United States with providers who are out of network, and therefore not subject to the rates or terms of providers who are in-network. Balance billing has a variable prevalence by market and specialty.
Vladimir Olshansky is a performing artist, director, composer, sculptor, graduate of the Moscow State Circus School, together with clown Slava Polunin, he is the founder of the clown theatre company Litsedei (Лицедеи). He creates numerous one man shows and performs at the Leningrad's State Variety Theatre, In parallel he studies directing at the Leningrad's State Theatre and Cinema Institute (ЛГИТМИК)
Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses information and communication technologies to facilitate understanding of health problems and challenges faced by people receiving medical treatment and social prescribing in more personalised and precise ways. The definitions of digital health and its remits overlap in many ways with those of health and medical informatics.
OpenNotes is a research initiative and international movement located at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Preoperative care refers to health care provided before a surgical operation. Preoperative care aims to do whatever is right to increase the success of the surgery.
The sad clown paradox is the contradictory association, in performers, between comedy and mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. For those affected, early life is characterised by feelings of deprivation and isolation, where comedy evolves as a release for tension, removing feelings of suppressed physical rage through a verbal outlet.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare workers physically and psychologically. Healthcare workers are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection than the general population due to frequent contact with positive COVID-19 patients. Healthcare workers have been required to work under stressful conditions without proper protective equipment, and make difficult decisions involving ethical implications. Health and social systems across the globe are struggling to cope. The situation is especially challenging in humanitarian, fragile and low-income country contexts, where health and social systems are already weak. Services to provide sexual and reproductive health care risk being sidelined, which will lead to higher maternal mortality and morbidity.
Media related to Clown care at Wikimedia Commons
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