FOUNDATION NEWS
Child Life Program
Expanded with
Gift from Moody
Foundation
When a loved one has suffered a trauma or is
battling a grave illness, it is a difficult experience
for anyone. For children, the uncertainty
and fear they can experience can be terrifying.
With the help of this grant, the
Palliative Care Child Life program will be
established or expanded in locations
in North Texas, including in Fort Worth,
Irving and Grapevine; and in Central
Texas, including Waco and Temple. Highly
trained and dedicated certified child life
specialists help families in crisis, serving in
palliative care and in all other hospital units
including trauma, emergency department,
intensive care unit, oncology, cardiac
care, transplant, women’s and children’s
services and rehabilitation.
Acting as advocates, educators,
liaisons and hand-holders, child life
specialists support children and families
with their knowledge and experience with
child development and age-appropriate
therapeutic interventions. In doing so, they
help reduce the stress and anxiety that
many children can experience in these
circumstances.
aylor Scott & White Health impacted by the health or injury of a loved
believes that treating the patient one will receive this support.
means treating the whole family.
“We have the unique opportunity to
“When there is a serious life-limiting
illness or injury, the children are often the
ones who need the most information
In 2011, Baylor University Medical Center take the long view in deciding how our and emotional support, but the adults
in Dallas became one of the first hospitals foundation can best invest in meaningful often don’t know where to start,” Cinda
in the nation to develop a Palliative Care projects that positively impact the lives McDonald, manager of Palliative Care Child
Child Life Services program dedicated of Texans for years or decades,” Frances Life Services, said. “We work with adults
to exclusively serving children of adult Moody-Dahlberg, executive director and to educate and empower them in how
patients who are facing life-altering chairman of the Moody Foundation, said. to support their kids through their health
or life-ending illnesses and trauma. “Bringing comfort to our smallest and crisis, giving them confidence to talk about
The program has expanded in the last most vulnerable children in their time of this difficult information with their kids.
eight years to additional Baylor Scott uncertainty allows us to be of service in a & White hospitals. way that is both gratifying and humbling. understanding can sometimes lead to fears
Now, through a generous grant We are pleased to come together with or misperceptions, like that they “caused”
from the Moody Foundation, more Baylor Scott & White Health on this life- a serious illness because they didn’t clean
children whose lives have been changing initiative.” their room as told, or that they were at
“For many children, their lack of
risk for “catching” their mother’s breast
cancer if they gave her a hug. It’s both
Cinda McDonald, child life specialist, works with 10-year-old Angel following his mother’s breast cancer diagnosis.
heartbreaking and real,” McDonald says.
“Our goal is to work with children and
their families, and help by being that
unbiased person outside of their family,
that ‘safe space’ where children can have
open and honest conversations on topics
that parents have given us permission to
talk about.” Helping children cope with
real-life circumstances is the goal of
providing child life services and support in
this innovative way, McDonald explains.
Thanks to generous support from the
Moody Foundation and other gracious
patrons, generations of Texans may be
supported on their journey through the
inevitable circumstances of serious illness,
injury or death of a loved one. To find out
how you can support this program, please
contact Lynn Bohne at 214.820.4070 or
[email protected].
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THE COMPASS / BAYLOR SCOTT & WHITE FOUNDATION NEWS / WINTER 2019