With help from a grant from The Toy Foundation, awarded in March 2024, the Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Program at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital has had the opportunity to pilot a successful sensory program in the Emergency Department (ED). This grant has allowed Child Life to provide kids who have special sensory needs and/or are experiencing acute sensory overstimulation the crucial relief and comfort they need for the best health and wellbeing outcomes possible.
The grant allowed our team to purchase a wide variety of sensory toys and two mobile sensory stations that together create calming and soothing environments with diversionary and therapeutic play opportunities. Child Life has already trained more than 100 ED care team members on how to employ these resources during overnight hours when Child Life is not on site, or in the event that Child Life is not available at any moment a child in the ED is in need.
“This grant has enabled our Child Life team members to dramatically increase the number of children in our Emergency Department who can now have their sensory needs met,” said Rita Goshert, director, Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Program, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital. “While Child Life already provided calming and soothing strategies to meet children’s emotional and mental health needs, The Toy Foundation grant allowed us to create a formal sensory program, which has allowed us to rise to meet a growing need in our community for this service.”
The program was so successful in reducing stress and anxiety for children hospitalized in the ED that Child Life has already begun expanding the program into our outpatient surgery unit, with the aim of expanding it into more hospital departments.
The effectiveness of this program is reflected in the positive response from parents and caregivers of children in the ED and outpatient surgery unit. In response to our recent social media post about the program, one parent stated that the color changing display and bright fiberoptic strings on the Vecta mobile sensory station helped reduce her daughter’s anxiety about an upcoming surgery.
The caregivers of one 4-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder in the ED told our team, “It is so helpful to have something like this. I can see that he is able to focus and calm down now that you have introduced [the Vecta mobile sensory station]. You are so good with him, and I can tell that he is able to trust you. He loves to walk around, so being confined to a room is hard for him. This helps him stay distracted and I think he is happy to play with you.”
This grant was crucial in helping our Child Life team meet an increased community need amid a nationwide crisis in children’s mental health. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the ED at Long Beach Medical Center saw an increase in children with mental and behavioral health emergencies. The pandemic exacerbated the issue.
Child Life Specialist Frances Viste, who is responsible for the program, reports that the project has had the important effect of increasing awareness, understanding, and empathy among staff about children with special sensory needs.
“As a Child Life Specialist, I have an extensive background in providing developmentally appropriate care to children of all abilities,” Frances said. “Understandably, different multidisciplinary team members may not have the same skillset, experience, or comfort level working with neurodiverse and behavioral health crisis patients. Since we have piloted our sensory program, I have seen an increasing number of team members recognize the disparities in the healthcare setting for our neurodiverse children and behavioral health crisis patients. I have had many conversations with staff who seek ways to provide more individualized and thoughtful care. In addition to sensory tools, this program has brought about tremendous growth in our pediatric emergency department staff in enhancing the tools of empathy, compassion, and understanding.”