KYTE Foundation, Inc., said on Monday that many hospitals in the Philippines lack “child life services” that are essential for the well-being of the sick.
“Anxiety levels in these children are greatly reduced in the provision of child health services,” Kythe Consulting Consultant Angie Stoelt-Fernandez told reporters in a roundtable discussion.
“It needs to be suppressed because it has to be removed, but why has it not been done so far?” he added.
Child Life Services is a psychological resource for parents and pediatric patients in hospitals to help cope with the stress and anxiety of treatment and health settings.
“It’s not just a child, sometimes, and includes our siblings;” Maria Fatima “Girlie” Garcia-Lorenzo, president and founder of the group, said one event.
“We also have a bereavement program to support those parents who lose their children,” he added.
The said service also aims to reduce the psychological distress of children from medical institutions through counseling, therapeutic play, and age-appropriate explanations of the treatment they need to undergo.
“Let them understand their illness. Let them understand the procedures. Why all the Pricks and Poles? What are you doing? Why are we doing that?” Ms. Fernandez said. “You have to let them understand that because children think differently.”
“When a child knows what is being done and why, it reduces anxiety and increases compliance,” she added.
Under the Integrated Pest Control Act of the National Rancher Control or Republic, Section Seven, all hospitals and appropriate facilities must have provisions for child health services.
Data from Ms. Fernandez found that there are about 60 hospitals across the country for pediatric cancer patients, but only 11 hospitals provide support for seriously ill children.
Among hospitals with child life services, nine are affiliated with the foundation.
According to the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (Dost-Pchrd), at least 5,000 Filipino children are diagnosed with cancer every year.
“Just think of other chronic diseases out there… We are talking about millions of children in the country who need treatment but beyond that, they need to be healed,” said Ms. Fernandez.
“And healing doesn’t just come from medicine. Healing also comes from the support you have in psychological support,” he added.
Ms. Lorenzo said she offers plant positions for child survival coordinators and the lack of designated play areas in hospitals hinders the implementation of the service.
“It’s hard for them to give us just one person and they do it for a while so the program won’t fly;” “It’s time,” he said.
“Another problem is the playing field,” he added. “When you approach one hospital, the medical director immediately asks us, what is the ROI (return on investment) if we give you that space.”
Ms. Fernandez noted that hospitals often ignore the economic benefits of having child health services in their facilities.
“For children in need [undergo] MRI, and they are prepared and educated and educated instead of getting full sedation, they get partial rescue, or no sedation, “he said.” So, that saves the hospital. “
By 2025, the KYTE Foundation has supported more than 20,000 children across the country since 1992.
“Just think of all these children of ours in the Philippines who have mental health problems and the suffering associated with this and are not supported,” said Ms. Fernandez.
“[They] it will be adults next time. What is the impact of trauma? What is the effect of anxiety or fear? “What kind of adults were you,” he added. So, it’s actually not the present, it’s the future. ” – Almira Louise S. Martinez
