What Children Face

"The most threatening health crisis facing children in America is exposure to adverse childhood experiences."

-American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Adverse - adjective

1.

unfavorable or antagonistic in purpose or effect: adversecriticism.

2.

opposing one's interests or desire: adverse circumstances.

3.

being or acting in a contrary direction; opposed oropposing: adverse winds.

4.

opposite; confronting: the adverse page.

When I heard this quote at the Child Life Council Conference in Washington, D.C., I wrote it down. It was the most powerful thing I had heard. Ever. Powerful and true. Children, in any type of circumstances that pose risk to their developmental, emotional, and physical growth, are threatened, whether that circumstance in living in the most rural area of a country with no clean water, or spending time in a hospital due to a disease or illness. 

I, as a child life specialist, have the chance to change a child's circumstances and their life, at least while they're in the hospital, helping them, as well as their family understand the hospital environment through education, therapeutic interventions, and play.