The Toy Foundation (TTF) awarded a second grant of $425,000 to the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science (CHDS), a part of Nemours Children’s Health System. This grant will be used to support Nemours’ work on a multi-phase research project to explore the impact of trauma-informed patient care and the role of play in helping children and families heal and cope with medical conditions and treatments.
An initial grant of $400,000 from TTF helped fund Phase 1 of the research, which was conducted last year. This phase gathered the perspectives of patients, families, and health care providers at Nemours/Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children (N/AIDHC), Wilmington, DE, and Nemours Children’s Hospital, Orlando, FL, regarding the need for, and best ways to deliver, trauma-informed pediatric patient care.
Phase 2, which began in January, will build upon the data already collected and focus on piloting specific ways to use play as an intervention to lessen the traumatic nature of medical events or prevent traumatic stress in children. The idea is to emphasize physical and emotional safety through play to help patients and their families rebuild a sense of control and empowerment.
The effort funded by The Toy Foundation is led by a collaborative team at Nemours—including the Center for Healthcare Delivery Sciences, KidsHealth, and the Child Life Program at N/AIDHC. Dr. Kazak continues to lead the project, in collaboration with Jennifer Sciolla, MS, director of Child Life, N/AIDHC, and Melissa Alderfer, PhD, and Jessica Pierce, PhD, of CHDS.
