International Child’s Day

As with every year, International Child’s Day 2015 was marked at Schneider Children’s by the Committee for the Protection of the Child with specially arranged activities.

Under the slogan “Communication, Sharing and Listening”, the event aimed to raise awareness about the importance of communication with and listening to children in order to promote sharing between both sides during times of distress or trauma. As part of the event, Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Director of the Emili Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center (CATRC) at Haifa University, presented a lecture outlining the findings of the first survey of its kind about the importance of communicating with children. The findings revealed the broad scope of abuse among teenagers, far higher than is known from reports received by the authorities. Therefore, attention must be directed towards children as the best and most effective way of identifying abuse. Based on the survey’s findings, the Committee for the Protection of the Child at Schneider Children’s undertook to raise awareness of the importance of identifying children in stress.

During the day’s activities which took place in the hospital’s atrium, magnetic photographs were taken of children and their parents underscoring the importance of sharing and listening. Parents received a guide for proper listening and children received brochures entitled “Chamudi (lit. Cutie) for the Child’s Well-Being” which included explanations about how to avoid risk situations and how to share with adults.

The Committee for the Protection of the Child at Schneider Children’s provides counseling and guidance to staff concerning children arriving for treatment where there is suspicion of abuse or neglect, and also aims to raise awareness and instruct hospital staff about these issues.

Members of the Committee include Chair, Dr. Rama Schwartz; senior physician in the ER; committee coordinator and social worker in the Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Efrat Harel; Deganit Ben Nissan, chief psychologist in the Institute of Child Development; and Idit Ronen, a member of the hospital’s Nursing Management.