|
 Kids Become Partners in Their Healing Process: Active engagement builds self-esteem and expedites recovery
Christopher Reising knew that sick kids stuck in a sterile hospital need more than cute stuffed animals to help them cope. But it wasn't until taking Landmark's community-based program that he decided to take action - giving kids tools that might further their engagement with their own healing process.
“Through Landmark, I saw a way that I could move my life forward and contribute to kids,” Reising says. “One of the concepts that really stuck with me is the notion of ‘Be! Do! Have!'—that when you are in a particular state, the doingness and the havingness can follow suit.”
Shortly after completing The Landmark Forum, Reising founded CHERP (Children's Hospital Education Recovery Program), an organization that uses interactive songs, reading, and other multimedia to help sick children learn to ask questions of doctors and nurses about their condition, and stay healthy after leaving the hospital.
“When each child sees that they can participate in the communication process, it raises their self-esteem, and allows them to be actively engaged in the healing process,” Reising explains. “Their recovery is more of a partnership. The partnership and increased self-esteem coupled with medication and treatment expedites healing.”
In its first three years, CHERP helped thousands of American kids learn how to proactively participate in their healing and recovery. Now the program has gone beyond the United States. “Title & Messages,” a series of CHERP-produced books, has been translated into 12 languages. “Our mission,” Reising says, “is no less than to help children around the world learn the value and worth of participating in their own health and recovery. We teach them self-esteem-building messages that will help them communicate with their healers.”
See more articles about Grads Making a Difference.
Share with a friend:   
|
