Halloween Retailer Helps Calm Young Loma Linda Patients’ Treatment Anxiety
30 December 2018 | Loma Linda University Health has recently profiled seasonal retailer Spirit Halloween that has donated significant funds to help calm the anxieties that patients at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital have while facing treatment.
Through its Spirit of Children program, the Halloween goods retailer has raised over $346,000 for the hospital since 2006 with the funds going to help young patients feel better about hospital time.
“If you mention Spirit of Children in our hospital, the response will most likely be a great big smile. We are so grateful for their faithful and enthusiastic support,” said Dorothy Clark Brooks, MA, CCLS, bereavement and community education specialist at Children’s Hospital.
Each of the Spirit branches in the Inland Empire hosts an annual fundraiser asking customers for their support. All proceeds go to the Child Life department at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital.
Recent Spirit donations paid for one year’s salary of a child life fellow at the radiology department that works to calm the fears of young patients facing a magnetic resonance imaging test, or MRI, a procedure that involves being inserted into a long narrow tube for a prolonged period of time. The testing can cause patients to suffer from claustrophobia.
Jamie Jones, MS, a child life specialist at Children’s Hospital recently completed a year as a fellow thanks to funding from Spirit of Children. She said that after working with the parents of patients, she asks patients if they would like to paint their surgical mask like a superhero.
“It sounds simple, but painting and decorating the mask makes a big difference to the kids. We are their safe person, the one who goes with them into the operating room and holds their hand. We explain what’s going on. It means a lot to them,” said Jones.
Children’s Hospital is part of Loma Linda University Health, which includes Loma Linda University’s eight professional schools, Loma Linda University Medical Center’s six hospitals and more than 900 faculty physicians located in the Inland Empire of Southern California. Established in 1905, Loma Linda University Health is a global leader in education, research and clinical care. It offers over 100 academic programs and provides quality health care to over 40,000 inpatients and 1.5 million outpatients each year. A Seventh-day Adventist organization, Loma Linda University Health is a faith-based health system with a mission “to continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ.”
