Toyota Grant Gives Miller Pediatrics Daily Help

 A $45,000 grant from Toyota Motor Sales, USA to Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach will fund support for youth being treated in the emergency department, it was announced Tuesday.

For a program called Child Life, the grant will ensure that a specialist is available seven days a week at Long Beach's only children's hospital. The Child Life program staff visit an average of 20 pediatric patients a day, and offer comfort, distraction and healthy ways to work out the stress and challenges of being cared for in a hospital E.R.

"Child Life Specialists are part of the unique Child Life Program that is offered, free-of-charge, to pediatric patients and families to provide a safe, secure and pediatric-friendly environment, a hospital press announcement stated. "This particular position will help reduce the negative impact of hospitalization through distraction techniques and medical play. Child life specialists talk through procedures in words kids understand and use dolls to “show” young patients what procedures may happen to them. This helps normalize the scariness of an emergency department visit for children and families. This position is critical, since being in an 'emergency setting' can be particularly traumatizing."

The goal of the rare program is to reduce anxiousness of patients, about 7,000 of whom are seen yearly at Miller. One of the techniques that can help reduce anxiety and promote coping skills is playing with dolls before or after treatment.

Toyota Motor Sales, USA has supported Miller Children’s for 19 years, from fundraising to buy medical tools and equipment to fundraising to build the new Miller Children's pavilion.