Shriners Children's Hospital has opened a Patient Playhouse in Sacramento.
The opening was reported by ABC10, which covers the Sacramento area.
Play Is Already Built Into Daily Routine at Shriners
The new playhouse adds to an approach Shriners Children's Northern California has already built into its daily operations. According to the hospital, play is treated as essential for healthy brain development, not simply a diversion, and it is incorporated into every child's routine at the facility, per shrinerschildrens.org.
That philosophy has long centered on the hospital's Gum Activity Pavilion, described as a central activity area where structured and unstructured activities take place throughout the day. Therapeutic recreation specialists, child life specialists and activities coordinators supervise everything happening there, according to the hospital's patient programs page. Their oversight stretches from card games and video games to special performances by the Sacramento Ballet.
Trained Staff Help Families Cope With Hospitalization
The hospital says every Shriners Children's location has team members specifically trained to help kids and families cope with injury, illness and hospitalization, a point made in a hospital article titled the hidden resource. Child life specialists lean on procedural preparation, medical play and distraction as their most frequently used tools when supporting pediatric patients, the same hospital piece notes.
The underlying aim, in the hospital's own words, is to make the hospital environment feel a little less scary and a little more normal for kids and their families. That mission extends beyond any single room or program, shaping how staff approach everything from routine checkups to more involved procedures.
Child Life Programs Carry a Broader Mandate
Shriners Children's Northern California describes its therapeutic recreation and child life department as helping patients navigate the challenges of hospitalization through play, education and emotional support, according to a hospital post marking Child Life Month. The hospital has also called the Gum Activity Pavilion a therapeutic environment where children can relax, socialize and connect with others going through similar experiences, adding that the space is always accessible to patients.
Research on therapeutic play lends some support to that approach, though the available evidence carries caveats. A systematic review found that therapeutic play in hospitalized children was associated with decreased postoperative pain, improved behavior and attitude, and reduced anxiety during hospital stays, according to PubMed Central. Separately, the American Academy of Pediatrics has described child life specialists as focused on promoting coping skills and minimizing the adverse effects of hospitalization and other stressful health-care experiences.
Other Children's Hospitals Have Similar Spaces
Sacramento's new playhouse joins a small but established category of hospital play spaces around the country. Children's Hospital Colorado operates a Creative Play Center for siblings of patients at its Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., according to Children's Hospital Colorado. The hospital describes its play rooms as a safe zone free from medical procedures and treatments, intended to help ease the stress of being hospitalized.
Children's Hospital Los Angeles offers a comparable amenity through its Play Garden, where the hospital says children who visit are treated to an opportunity to play. Details on the size, design, funding or specific accessibility features of Sacramento's new Patient Playhouse have not been made public, and it remains unclear whether the space is connected to the hospital's existing Gum Activity Pavilion.
