Child Life Program

Hours of operation and contact information:

  • Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. (8:00) to 4:00 p.m. (16:00)
  • By telephone: 519-685-8500 extension. 52887 Main Child Life office
  • By telephone: 519-685-8368 press 1 for the MRI program

The Medical Imaging Child Life Program strives to meet the psychosocial and emotional needs of children and youth throughout their health care journeys. They help them adjust to and understand hospitalization, medical procedures, illness and injury. The Child Life Program at Children’s Hospital (Victoria Hospital) helps patients and families to effectively cope by:

  • Easing a child’s fear and anxiety with the use of individualized play experiences.
  • Sharing information; which includes explanations for medical experiences, sequence of events and details about what you may see, hear, taste and feel.
  • Creating play opportunities to explore and handle pretend and, or actual medical equipment. This may increase a patient’s comfort level and familiarity with medical care.
  • Developing coping plans and supporting strategies such as distraction and deep breathing.
  • Offering support to caregivers who are present during medical procedures (for example, anesthesia induction).

In Medical Imaging, they are most commonly involved with procedures that are specialized or take a longer time to complete including Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, and x-ray guided procedures.

Please inquire if you feel your child could benefit from this service.