Meet Chelsea Tuazon, one of our amazing Team EKF runners! She will be running the TCS New York City Marathon this year and raising funds for enCourage Kids. We are so grateful for her dedication!

What inspired you to run the TCS New York City Marathon this year?
This past year has brought a lot of unforeseen challenges both personally and professionally. I signed up for the marathon as a way to motivate myself to do something I have never done before.

Have you ever run in a marathon before?
I ran the virtual United Airlines half marathon in March with a few co-workers but this will be my first live marathon ever!

Why do you want to run with Team EKF and raise funds for our mission?
As a nurse that works in the hospital setting I see first hand how difficult having a child in the hospital can be on not only the child but their families as well. So I’m very grateful that there our organizations like Team EFK that can provide support to these children and their families. And it’s an honor to help support them and raise funds for their mission!

What is a fun fact about you?
My mom and I were featured on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt!

If you had to give people one piece of advice, related to anything, what would it be?
As cliche as it sounds I would say to just enjoy every second of life! Go for that extra slice of pizza (even while training)!

We are so grateful to Chelsea for her dedication to enCourage Kids and we cannot wait to cheer her on during the marathon on November 7th! If you want to support Chelsea in her fundraising, you can visit: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/fundraisers/3690a88badd37eb4f3c4

Meet Brian Hirt

We are very excited to introduce one of our amazing runners Brian Hirt, who has joined Team EKF for his very first ever TCS New York City Marathon. We hope you enjoy meeting and supporting Brian as he raises funds to support our mission!

What inspired you to run the New York City Marathon this year?
I had a friend run a few years back so I made a sign and watched her from the sidelines.  It was my first time watching the marathon and it was such a great day. The energy from the crowd and the motivation from all the runners was amazing. From that day, I knew I had to add it to my bucket list.

Why do you want to run with Team EKF and raise funds for our mission?
EKF is such a wonderful foundation with a great mission.  When I got the opportunity to partner with them, I jumped on it. To be able to support a great cause and get the opportunity to run was a win win.

What is a fun fact or story about you that you would want to share with our community?
Usually my fun fact is “I am running the NYC Marathon this year.” 

If you had to give people one piece of advice, related to anything, what would it be?
I always say, if you have patience and be kind you will eventually get what you want. This may not apply to everything in life but a general rule.

We are very appreciative for Brian’s dedication and for running his first marathon with Team EKF! enCourage Kids can’t wait to cheer you on during the marathon on November 7th! If you want to support Brian in his fundraising, you can visit: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/fundraisers/688a76156549aded38b1

Meet Walter. He has been volunteering with enCourage Kids for over 10 years and was recently awarded the enCourage Kids Volunteer of the Year for 2020. His dedication and passion for our mission are unparalleled and we are grateful to have him as a part of our community. Outside of donating his time, Walter also provides generous financial and in-kind contributions through his company, My Paint By Numbers.

We asked Walter about his experience volunteering with enCourage Kids and what makes him so dedicated to our work. He says, “I’m passionate about the mission because of how happy the kids and families are with enCourage Kids’ programs. I can only imagine how difficult it is for families at home. I showed up to the weekend away at camp with a bag that can fit as an overhead carry-on. Many of these families had car trunks full of just medical devices they needed to make it through the weekend. It is just wonderful to be able to give the kids and their families respite from the challenges they face. The joy it brings them is palpable and contagious.”

Volunteers like Walter are a huge part of how we carry out our mission. They are an integral part of our organization and we are thankful for their dedication to making hospitals a better place to get better for pediatric patients across the country. If you are interested in learning more about how you can support enCourage Kids, please email Briana Horwich at briana@encourage-kids.org.

What is music therapy? Me oh my! If you are thinking about a career as a music therapist, get ready to have a quick answer to that question –it will be asked frequently! I am excited the enCourage Kids Foundation (EKF) has given me the chance to answer that question in this post, as well as the opportunity to describe the role of music therapy in pediatric hospitals and a bit about my own career as a music therapist and researcher. Thanks, EKF! And who am I? My name is Jessica Jarvis, I have been a music therapist for roughly 10 years, and I am currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh completing a research fellowship to develop advanced skills in pediatric critical care research.

So, what is music therapy? The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) defines it as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” My elevator speech definition is typically something along the lines of “Music therapists address physical, emotional, cognitive, communicative, or social goals through the use of music. ‘Using music’ can mean listening to, moving to, singing, or creating music.” Keep in mind that music therapists work with individuals across the age span and work in many settings, including, but not limited to, schools, medical and psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. I worked in a pediatric hospital and thus this is the lens through which I often describe music therapy services.

As you can imagine with such a broad definition, music therapy can be utilized in a variety of ways in the medical field. In a given day at a pediatric hospital, a music therapist may work with a child on improving their attention and working memory through playing the drums, processing trauma through songwriting, providing alternate engagement through singing and instrument play with a child to decrease their pain perception during a burn dressing, increasing arousal and purposeful responses through music-based stimuli for children with altered mental status after brain injury, or supporting families during the end of their child’s life through legacy building. Sometimes we work individually with the child, sometimes we hold group sessions. We might co-treat with other creative arts therapists, child life specialists, rehabilitation therapists, or behavioral health therapists. It all comes down to what the child and their family’s priority needs are and how we can best support them in achieving those goals.

The ability to safely and effectively use music and music-based interventions to address an individual’s goals requires training. To become a board certified music therapist (MT-BC), you will need a degree in music therapy from an AMTA approved program, 1200 hours of supervised clinical training, and to pass a national certification exam administered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Note: Some states may require licensure, make sure to search the laws for your state.

Some of those clinical training hours are embedded in your degree program as fieldwork or practicum opportunities and the rest are completed during your music therapy internship. I was fortunate to be selected for a wonderful internship at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital with Christine Neugebauer. Amongst other things, Christine instilled in me a love of research and taught me how to how to find and understand the latest research in order to inform my clinical practice. Sometimes this was from music therapy-specific research, but, given how relatively young music therapy is, sometimes it meant applying findings from other related fields (such as neuroscience or psychology). I was lucky to be offered a position at Children’s after I completed my internship and I worked there for 5 wonderful years. Working as a music therapist in a level 1 pediatric trauma hospital is certainly challenging, but very rewarding. Similar to many music therapy programs in pediatric hospitals, our music therapy team provided services throughout the hospital. Over the years, I developed a particular passion for working with critically ill children and their families in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), which ultimately led me to my career as a researcher.

Being grounded in evidence-based practice, I wanted to make sure I was providing optimal care for this vulnerable population. However, I struggled to find published research on the use of music therapy in the PICU. I searched for published research on the efficacy of other rehabilitation therapies in the PICU, but to no avail. Finally, I sought for research on outcomes for children and families who survive a PICU admission, but there were few results. This lack of evidence-based rehabilitation approaches for critically ill children and limited knowledge about post-PICU outcomes inspired me to obtain a Ph.D. in rehabilitation sciences and to complete two postdoctoral research fellowships, one in pediatric rehabilitation and one in pediatric critical care. My program of research focuses on understanding what functional recovery looks like for children and their families after leaving the PICU and testing music-based interventions to help promote that recovery.

This is just one person’s experience within a very broad field. I’d like to encourage interested readers to explore what other career paths in music therapy may look like. Check out AMTA’s website, find resources and engage in webinars through the Sound Health Network (a Kennedy Center, NIH, and National Arts Endowment collaboration exploring music’s impact on the brain, health, and wellness), follow music therapists on Twitter (I’m on there too: @jarvismtbc), attend a conference, listen to a podcast (I enjoy ‘Instru(mental)’ by Bea Murakami) – there is no shortage of ways to learn!

And on that note (pun absolutely intended), I thank EKF again for this opportunity to share and I thank  ✨you✨ for reading!

Jessica M. Jarvis, Ph.D., MT-BC

Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

University of Pittsburgh

Happy Child Life month!  My name is Jennifer Johnson and this year marks the 30th anniversary of my career in the child life field. When I reflect back on the past 30 years and all that I have accomplished, my proudest achievement has been my work with a dog by my side.  Back in 2003, our child life program started a facility dog program and welcomed Hazel, a sweet two-year-old Labrador/Golden Retriever from Canine Companions for Independence.

My entire career has been at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. For the past 24 years, I have worked exclusively with the pediatric oncology population.  Most would say they could never survive in this position for as long as I have.

But, I firmly believe it is because of the endless joy and rewarding outcomes that my work with my current facility dog, Glimmer brings.  Glimmer is a very important tool in my work with patients and families. Because of her skill set, I am able to utilize her in my daily interventions that would otherwise not be possible with an untrained dog. Glimmer’s sweet demeanor and softest fur make even the most difficult situations a bit better.

My journey with my first facility dog, Millie began back in 2004.  This means I have worked over half of my career with a facility dog by my side!  Both Hazel and Millie really paved the way and pioneered so much of what we now are seeing across the country with facility dog programs. Through all of the changes in healthcare, the one thing that has remained constant is the incredible support our child life and facility dog programs have received from our hospital.  We have grown our program within the Sutter Health hospital system to 14 dogs, all working in various settings within Northern California. There are currently six dogs on our campus, matched up with Child Life Specialists. What I love most about having Glimmer by my side are the unexpected nuggets that come from each day. Dogs have a way of bringing people together in both joy and sorrow.

So many people have asked me through the years, “How is a facility dog different from a therapy dog?” Here are a few of the main differences, but this list is just the beginning.

Pet therapy dogs are typically volunteers that have permission to visit a public facility. They are required to pass a “canine good citizen” test or obedience test through AKC. They are usually registered by a therapy dog program and ongoing follow-up is not required.

Facility dogs are expertly trained and matched with professional, certified handlers. The dogs are trained for approximately two years and work a minimum of 20 hours a week.  They engage in interventions or tasks that benefit the patient or client with the direction of their handler. The handler and facility dog pass a standardized public safety exam through Assistance Dogs International (ADI) and have ongoing certifications.

If you are considering adding a facility dog to your program, I would advise you to lean in and ask the experts, do your homework on the various organizations that train and provide facility dogs, but most of all run, don’t walk. You won’t regret it!

Canine Companions for Independence is a non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained assistance dogs at no charge to the recipient. Canine Companions is the largest provider of assistance dogs in the world. They train service dogs for adults, children, and veterans, and facility dogs who work with professionals in a visitation, education, or healthcare setting.

For more information on Canine Companions, please visit www.caninecompanions.org

When asked to write this I immediately had feelings of joy, excitement, and delight. My name is Keeley Machen Schares and I just summed up on what child life is in the above three words. My child life journey started during my undergraduate studies at Louisiana Tech University. At the time, I had no clue that I had chosen to enroll in a university that had a child life program, but thankfully after hopping around from major to major I found my passion within the child life classes. Mrs. Anita Pumphrey, Certified Child Life Specialist, was the academic child life coordinator at the time and she inspired me to chase my dreams of being a Certified Child Life Specialist.  Upon graduation from Louisiana Tech University, I decided to attend graduate school at Texas State University to earn a master’s degree in human development and family science with a concentration in child life. While completing my graduate studies, I gained lifelong friends that now work around the world as Certified Child Life Specialists.

Fast forward to my clinical work, I was hired after the completion of my child life internship at Children’s Health in Dallas, Texas. Talk about a dream! I worked within the emergency department for two years and then transitioned to the gastrointestinal unit. During my time at Children’s, I learned how important the role of a Certified Child Life Specialist is. We are the ones who can be a glimpse of light to families in their darkest days. No day is the same for a child life specialist. I would sit with families while they waited for their child to receive a liver transplant, I educated parents on how to play with their infant who will go home with a nasogastric tube, and on the same day I would also celebrate a patient’s fifth birthday, organize a family lunch to promote normalization, or engage a patient in a scavenger hunt to encourage ambulating.  My work inside the hospital walls is irreplaceable, the families I supported taught me what resilience looks like, and the friends I gained will last forever.  My love for child life, that joy, excitement, and delight I feel is now seen inside classrooms. I have recently transitioned to the child life instructor at Louisiana Tech University. As a child life specialist, you never stop advocating. You advocate for families, for funding, for the medical staff, and for yourself. I love that now I get to advocate for the importance of child life and for students. My passion is child life, full circle of pure joy, excitement, and delight.

March is Child Life Month, a month dedicated to celebrating child life specialists and the child life profession through education and awareness of their incredible work.

Certified Child Life Specialist: noun

A person who is educated and clinically trained in the developmental impact of illness and injury. Their role helps improve patient and family care, satisfaction, and overall experience.¹

Learning that your child requires hospitalization or extended medical care is every parent’s worst nightmare. The hospital experience comes with so many questions, fears, and anxieties, and that is just for the parents. A child experiences all of that, plus the needles, tests, and procedures. Child life specialists are there to meet the unique emotional and developmental needs of pediatric patients and their families, no matter their age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, or medical needs. enCourage Kids is honored and proud to work alongside child life specialists across the country.

You may wonder what exactly a child life specialist does to support children and their families during a hospital stay or new diagnosis. While every child and every situation is different, child life specialists:

• Use therapeutic, developmentally-appropriate play interventions that allow children to cope, healing, mastery, and self expression²
• Prepare patients and their families for medical interventions and difficult medical concepts using age-appropriate language they understand
• Help children and their families cope with certain procedures through distraction or engagement
• Advocate for both their patient and their family
• Help ensure the child is on track developmentally during their hospital stay
• Support the patient and family through end-of-life care

For the 3 million children hospitalized every year in the United States, child life specialists understand the unique challenges that accompany a hospital visit. Together, with enCourage Kids’ support and funding, we are making hospitals a better place to get better.

Join us this month as we celebrate and share the stories of how child life specialists make a difference through our amazing guest bloggers. You won’t want to miss it!

1. https://www.childlife.org/the-child-life-profession
2. https://www.childlife.org/the-child-life-profession/values