Good thoughts are bad. And the laughter, sometimes out loud, that clowns provoke serves as therapy to improve the physical and psychological state of children and adolescents suffering from chronic illness. Is known the positive effects of laughter to improve mood, but now a study just published in the journal ‘The BMJ’, certifies the well-being it brings to the smallest of the house.
Haizea Murgia, a social educator by training, knows this well. He’s been working in for ten years Irrikiclown, a group that visits sick children at Cruces hospital every week and he does not hesitate to argue that the patient’s immune system has improved. According to him, the ‘most important’ thing is to keep them children. “They are treated like adults in that ramp and sometimes they forget how important it is for them to keep playing, to turn the hospital from the imaginary to something else,” he says. For her “The game that is made in the room is very important” because although it seems as if it is disappearing, nothing could be further from the truth. It continues to permeate the hours and days that follow and even the memories that the little ones will lead in your life.
And it is that despite everything – or perhaps especially – because of that habitat in which they have had to live, the little ones have a strong need to smile and laugh. “It’s important to fill a site with hope,” he emphasizes. It is also essential for their families and for those unable to defeat the disease to end their last hours with pleasure. “They deserve to be able to play and be children. It is essential that these places are humanized and that they have a good quality of life while there », defends.
It has long been thought that the efforts of animators, who either work or go to hospitals voluntarily, can help reduce the stress and anxiety that logically cause them to be exposed to so much pressure, especially at a young age. . Situations that are aggravated by, for example, having to wait for an operation or by suffering from a disease such as cancer. However, there were no consistent studies or studies that 100 percent confirmed this theory. Until now. Brazilian and Canadian researchers have examined the symptoms of the little ones that have been admitted in the short and long term and have discovered that improvements can be demonstrated.
Anxiety
Scientists analyzed the databases of 24 relevant studies collecting data from 1,612 children and adolescents. In most, as you might imagine, the little ones suffered from anxiety, but also pain, stress, fatigue – in cases of cancer – and crying. Well, the little ones who got a visit from the clowns in the hospital had a better psychological evolution and they developed less anxiety.
In up to three studies of chronic diseasess significant reductions in distress were found in children. And the results were remarkable compared to the rest of the kids who didn’t have access to these professionals. For all these reasons, the researchers do not hesitate to state that “hospital clowns can have a positive effect on improving psychological well-being and the responses they experience. Our findings also support continued research on complementary treatments for better psychological adjustment during hospital admission in pediatrics ”, they emphasize.