45 years: Child Family Life Services celebrates Child Life Month with a big anniversary
For 45 years, the Child-Family Life Services team at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital has helped children and families facing critical illness cope while finding a sense of comfort and community during their hospital stay.
When the department was first created in 1977, the staff of just two members relied on a red wagon that would be wheeled through the halls of the hospital, bringing toys and activities to patients and families’ rooms. Now, the team has grown to staff 37 certified child life specialists and 7 child life associates, serving patients and families in 20 different areas in our children’s hospital.
“We have so much more we can do for our patients with the technology, training and resources we have now,” said Amy Wynia, who’s been a child-family life specialist at our hospital for 15 years. “It’s just amazing.”
In honor of national Child Life Month in March, we spoke with four certified child-family life specialists and associates to learn how their meaningful work creates positive experiences for our patients and families every day.
Learn how you can make a difference with M Health Fairview.
Lynn Kokal
Child Life Associate, Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone
A hospital stay can leave children feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and without a sense of control. As a child life associate, Lynn Kokal provides children with opportunities to make personal choices and interact with peers. She also gives them welcome distractions that can promote a sense of normalcy.
She does this through developmental play in Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone, a therapeutic space designed to support children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional development.
“When a patient’s healthcare goal is to strengthen their upper body, we can encourage them to play with the sports simulator,” Kokal said. “For social or emotional development, we often create vision boards or decorate journals – which help them process their emotions while staying in the hospital.”
“Having the ability to create meaningful experiences with patients and their families in a space that allows them to enjoy a variety of activities together is very rewarding for me,” Kokal added.
Britta Johnson
Certified Child Life Specialist, Media Producer in the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio
The pandemic brought many changes to Britta Johnson’s day-to-day work as the media producer in the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio.
The broadcast studio is the home of ZTV, our in-hospital TV channel. ZTV programs create a safe space for all children and families – who can watch, participate in, and even create therapeutic programming shown throughout the hospital. When increased safety protocols were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that restricted visitors and public events at the hospital, Johnson and her team creatively developed new ways to reach patients and help them feel less alone. To do so, they used new technology to increase patient participation from hospital rooms while forging partnerships with various community organizations, to create unique virtual experiences for families.
“I love when we have families who regularly engage in ZTV programming and we are able to watch them grow and build connections,” Johnson said. “As child-family life specialists, we are able to walk beside patients and families in so many different ways.”
