September 2006

Dear friends in Christ,

I write this letter with a joyful heart for I have much to be thankful. I would like to share with you one of the things, which the Lord has seen fit to do through me to help build His kingdom here on earth.

I have had the great honor of working side by side with many hard working Croatian colleagues. These colleagues work long hours, way more than they must, because they deeply believe in what they’re doing — improving the psychosocial care of children in hospitals. Two such colleagues are Ivanka Gregurincic and Marina Grubic. Ivanka works as a social pedagogue. Her job description is to simply provide a supervised recreation program for hospitalized children. Yet, she has gone above and beyond her duties: she established a school and kindergarten in the hospital, improved the therapeutic play and arts programs there and organized a group of international women to serve as volunteers. Also she created a program in which museums visit the hospital bringing their exhibits to children who don’t have the chance to see them, such as the archaeology museum, which brought ancient relics. She also organizes and hosts various special guests who entertain the children — clowns, magicians, famous athletes, and actors.

Marina’s job description as a psychologist is to simply test children and write diagnostic reports. She, however, sees that this doesn’t adequately serve the needs of her patients, so she also provides counseling and education based on what she finds in her evaluations. The government doesn’t reimburse her or any psychologist for providing therapy, so there’s no incentive to provide follow up counseling. Marina not only sees patients officially referred to her, but regularly walks around the unit making sure that all the patients are doing well, even those who have not been noticed to have “problems” so that nobody “falls through the cracks.” To say that Marina does the job of two and a half psychologists would not be an exaggeration!

Meanwhile, both Marina and Ivanka work together to provide patients with educational workshops and recreational activities including special camps — these are outside of the hospital, beyond their normal working hours, during the evenings and on weekends. They also work raising money for such projects, writing grants and soliciting funds from both governmental and non-governmental resources.

I’ve been proud to get to know them and witness first hand their tireless dedication to their profession. Therefore I decided this past May to invite them to attend a national conference of child life specialists in Dallas, Texas, with me. Child life specialist is the name we use to call those who provide psychosocial services to children and their families in health care settings in North America. I also hosted them in Boston so that they could visit some U.S. hospitals to see our psychosocial programs in action. Both Ivanka and Marina were impressed and gathered many ideas from the presentations and workshops at the conference as well as by watching the child life specialists working on the hospital units.

For example, they saw how hospitals provide supportive services for children in emergency rooms and followed a couple of patients from the initial intake to discharge during their day surgery procedures. They also interacted with patients, their families and staff in an outpatient oncology clinic, several inpatient therapeutic activity rooms and intensive care units. In each location they saw how the staff worked as a team to make the hospital as comfortable as possible while minimizing psychological distress. They also carefully studied how the space was used (architectural layout, furniture, colors, etc.) and what types of toys and equipment the children liked and learned from the most so that they could use the ideas in Croatia. At the conference Ivanka and Marina attended such presentations as organizing camps for children with cancer and traumatic loss, preparing children for medical procedures, teaching children about the human body, providing creative, visual arts in hospital settings, understanding how to meet the special needs of autistic pediatric patients and using a family systems approach for the care of families in hospitals. They also got a better understanding of their professional identity and networked with many professionals all over the world. Thus, they do not feel as isolated and as unsure about their professional identity as before.

Now back in Croatia, Ivanka and Marina are busy applying all that they learned while in the U.S. They already shared their experience with doctors at a weekly grand rounds meeting and will be presenting what they learned to medical students and nurses next month. The goal is to implement a program like Child Life, but adapted to the needs and cultural context of Croatia. Currently patients are not routinely prepared for surgeries and there is little time spent with them helping them cope while undergoing painful, invasive procedures. The main limitation is the severe lack of staff. It is hoped that by showing how useful the services are the hospital will hire more people like Marina and Ivanka. Although they are quite capable and dedicated, they simply can’t meet all the needs of over 150 patients!

By supporting me you help me to assist people like Marina and Ivanka so that they can care for ill children and their families. Thus your mission support helps these staff and patients and we truly appreciate it!

Yours in Christ,

Brett