Code Clown: Humanitarians for Healthcare

Health care access

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Being in a hospital is traumatic for patients, especially kids. The moment a patient enters for treatment they lose their sense of autonomy. Children who are hospitalized are more susceptible to developing post-traumatic stress disorder. The Journal of Pediatric Psychology found that, “10.7% of children and 9.6% of parents showed clinically elevated posttraumatic distress 1 month after a hospital admission…children admitted to hospital for trauma experienced higher rates of subsyndromal PTSD than children admitted for nontrauma.” Our country’s political state may lead to severe cuts in services like Medicaid which as of January 2025 covers over 71 million children. A loss in funding will affect how hospitals are staffed. That will lead to frontline workers having more responsibilities causing more strain overall. This will affect patient care at all levels. Integrative arts programs that assist with these stressors are the first to be cut. We saw this during the height of the pandemic.

We are a pilot initiative that will become an in-house program at LA hospital(s) in collaboration with their child life team, tailored to meeting their patients’ needs. As healthcare clowns, we use the art of comedy, empathy, and awareness to connect with patients. We provide them with an opportunity to shift their emotional state through integrative play. This can entail creating musical numbers, interacting with puppet friends, and improvising magical scenarios. As a duo, we provide a unique combination of 2000 clowning hours and decades worth of clowning and arts administration experience. The activities will establish the framework for visitation rounds with patients, which will ideally be at least once a week lasting roughly 3-5 hours. We’ll have regular meetings with the child life team to discuss what their vision is for an in-house healthcare clown program. These meetings will focus on their hospital protocols, best practices, and necessary training, such as mandated reporting, hygiene & infectious disease control, background checks, and more. Additionally, we will research and network with potential donors and grant opportunities. This is the best way to address the issue because research and our professional experience has proven that this modality is effective. A 2020 pediatric study “found that children exposed to [hospital clowns] were significantly less anxious during subsequent medical procedures…and experienced improved psychological well-being.”

Prior to June 2024, LA County had a biweekly presence of healthcare clowns for several years, making a positive impact with an average of 10k annual interactions (directly & indirectly). Sadly, our county lost its healthcare clowns due to funding cuts with our former employer. We will restore the presence of clowns to our community. We are a beacon of hope. Through connecting with patients, we’ll revive their sense of agency and humanity, and be an empowering reminder that their illness doesn’t define them. This endeavor begins with establishing our initiative at a LA hospital. Within the first year, the goal is to have our innovative method accepted by the hospital as an instrumental part of their culture and care team, subsequently leading them to fully fund our program. In order to scale long-term, we will train and network within the medical and healthcare clowning communities. This includes attending workshops, galas, and events to secure new partnerships and potential donors.