Objectives
The project aims to help child patients and their families cope with the difficult challenge of hospitalisation through visits by Docteurs Rêves (Dream Doctors), professional artists employed and trained by Fondation Théodora to provide specialised visits by clowns to a growing number of children in paediatric hospitals. Hospitalisation can be a source of anxiety for children who are obliged to separate from their parents and friends and remain in a place allowing little opportunity for distraction and fun. Laughter helps the children and their families cope with the difficult challenge of hospitalisation. The Dream Doctor becomes a special friend, listening and making the children smile, inventing games or magic tricks that allow them to dream and fantasise and so to become aware of their identity as a child rather than a patient.
Activities
From 2006 to 2011 Fondation Alta Mane supported weekly visits by two clown doctors to the National Cancer Institute in Milan, the San Gerardo hospital in Monza and the Bambin Gesù hospital and the paediatric haematology department of Umberto I hospital in Rome.
Partner
Fondation Théodora Italia
Fondazione Theodora Italia, established as an Onlus in 1999, supports the activity of Dream Doctors, professional artists trained to work in a hospital environment, who provide concrete support to children and their families in coping with the difficult challenge of hospitalisation through play and listening to their emotions.[/fusion_tab][/fusion_tabs]
