Theodora Children's Trust brings music, magic, fun and laughter to children in hospital through weekly visits from Clown Doctors; professional artists trained to work in the hospital environment. For most children, a stay in hospital is a daunting and anxious experience.
A normal day consists of tests, injections and side effects as well as feeling isolated from school, home, their friends and everyday life. Many of the children we visit spend weeks at a time in hospital; on a dialysis ward many of the children are there 3 times a week for most of their childhood and on an oncology ward children may be in and out of hospital for years.
When a child is ill the focus of everybody they come into contact with is their illness. The Clown Doctor only looks for the child in the child, for the mischief, the curiosity, the desire to play and hopes that for five minutes or so the illness is forgotten, and laughter and joy take its place. When this happens you see overwhelming relief in the parents, doctors and nurses. For a moment it is as though the illness has left the room and everybody can take a well deserved breath of vitality. The effect is contagious; a song and dance in a corridor or on a ward may lighten the atmosphere of the entire ward, as people smile at each other or try and contain a giggle.
Our Clown Doctors know many of the children they visit by name, and their weekly visits are eagerly awaited and always too short. For a short period, they allow children to leave behind the sometimes bewildering and frightening world of the hospital for a world of fun. Our programme really does allow children to be children in the true sense of the word. At its simplest level, our Clown Doctors give children who are ill a chance to laugh. They improve the quality of life for these children and bring in something that is normally left outside - humour. Hospital staff tell us that the feeling of a ward changes once we start visiting. We work closely with them to monitor and evaluate the quality of our work. Our Clown Doctors undergo an intensive training programme which lasts up to a year and consists of both medical and artistic modules as well as a series of hospital observations.
The use of humour as a therapy is receiving increasing attention from health care professionals who are interested in both the psychological and physical effects on patients’ wellbeing. In 2007 we completed a service evaluation which allowed us to understand how the benefits and efficacy of Clown Doctor visits could be improved and developed further so that the maximum benefits of clown humour are achieved.
This service evaluation delivered to children in hospital with 160 beds has shown that the majority of children, parents and staff enjoy the presence of our Clown Doctors and believe they fulfil an important role in alleviating the stresses experience by sick children during hospitalisation.
Our team of 21 Clown Doctors currently visit 50,000 children in 17 hospitals and charitable homes throughout the UK.
Just £5 funds one child’s visit from a Clown Doctor – a small cost to bring a smile to the face of a child in need.
