Intimidating medical procedures, unfamiliar surroundings, and new faces can be particularly stressful for children and adolescents. Child Life specialists help our youngest patients cope with their fears and anxieties by offering therapeutic activities tailored to meet their social, emotional, and educational needs.
Visit our UCLA Spark fundraising page and support our program >
Hospitals can be a confusing and frightening environment for a child. Chase Child Life Program seeks to ease that fear by familiarizing young children, adolescents and their families with the hospital experience. For nearly four decades, Chase Child Life Program has been a pioneer and a national model for how to appropriately address the social, emotional and developmental needs of each child and his/her family in a culturally sensitive manner.
Child Life Specialists
A Child Life Specialist is available to consult with children admitted to UCLA. These professionals are an essential part of the healthcare team, and work with pediatric patients to help them cope with their illness and hospitalization. They provide accurate and age-appropriate information to the patient and parents, identify potential sources of stress, and plan and practice coping strategies. Child Life Specialists also provide valuable information about developmental and psychosocial issues to the child's medical team.
Caring for Families
Separated from the home and other familiar support structures, and facing the unknown of medical procedures and medications, it is natural for a child to become anxious. Child Life Specialists help parents and siblings to understand the child's response and provide them with opportunities and strategies to continue their role as caregivers.
Chase Child Life Program provides educational and training opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers that support the social and emotional development of medically fragile children.
