Marinel clutches the notes carefully in her hands and opens them one more time to steady her nerves. The message she needs to share is important. When she sees me, she musters a smile and stands to shake my hand. Black rings sit heavily under her tired eyes, her smile sincere but lined with exhaustion. It is the look of a parent stretched thin by worry.
But Marinel’s concerns go far beyond the usual cold or flu. Her child has thalassemia, a rare blood disorder that requires ongoing medical care and, in severe cases, lifelong transfusions. Despite everything, she still carries a sense of hope, shaped by the steadfast women around her whose work has helped thousands of Filipino children heal emotionally while undergoing treatment.
Thalassemia is only one of many life changing conditions that children face. Dr. Angie Sievert-Fernandez, a certified child life specialist and one of only three in the entire Philippines, notes that around 5,000 Filipino children are diagnosed with cancer every year, and that number is for cancer alone. When you add chronic illnesses such as diabetes, nephritis, heart disease and rare blood disorders, the number of children who need both medical and psychosocial care reaches into the millions.
When you add chronic illnesses such as diabetes, nephritis, heart disease and rare blood disorders, the number of children who need both medical and psychosocial care reaches into the millions.
In this context, Child Life Services is not a nice “extra.” It is crucial. Here are five reasons why.
1. It prevents deep fear and trauma before they take root
Hospitals are intimidating even for adults. For children who do not yet understand their bodies, their illness or the language of medicine, fear can easily become overwhelming.
Child Life Services uses play, the natural language of childhood, to reduce anxiety and help kids process what is going on. Through free play and medical play using dolls, books, posters and real or pretend equipment, children learn what procedures mean and why they are needed.
When a child understands what is being done and why, anxiety goes down and cooperation goes up. This does not only make a single blood draw easier. It helps protect them from long term psychological effects such as lingering fear of hospitals, sleep problems, depression or school refusal later in life.
2. It directly improves medical outcomes
Lower anxiety is not just an emotional benefit. It has a measurable impact on medical care.
When children are well prepared, they are more likely to cooperate with injections, blood tests, x rays and other procedures. There’s less struggling, fewer delays and fewer repeated attempts.
In some cases, especially for procedures like MRI scans, proper preparation through Child Life can mean partial sedation instead of full sedation, or sometimes no sedation at all. That is a direct saving for hospitals and a significant reduction in risk and discomfort for the child.
In practice this means procedures that finish on time, fewer complications and more accurate results. Child Life makes the medical system work better.
3. It supports the whole family, not only the patient
Serious illness never affects just one person. Parents and siblings carry their own fears, guilt and confusion. Many parents are terrified, exhausted and unsure how to explain the illness to their child without breaking down themselves.
Child Life Coordinators don’t focus on the child alone. They talk to parents, help them understand the illness in simple terms and guide them on how to support their child emotionally. They also look after siblings, who may feel neglected or scared but stay quiet.
Sometimes, coordinators step in when parents hesitate to even bring their child to the hospital, whether because of fear, finances or sheer overwhelm. They remain in contact with many families even after the active hospital phase, continuing to offer support and connection.
For a mother like Marinel, that kind of steady, informed presence can be the difference between feeling completely alone and feeling held by a community that understands.
4. It answers the hard ROI question from hospital leaders
One of the most telling moments in Kythe’s advocacy comes from Fatima “Girlie” Garcia Lorenzo (fondly called, Tita Girle), Kythe’s co-founder and president. She recalls going to a hospital to propose setting up a Child Life program. The medical director listened and then asked a blunt question:“What is the ROI if we give you that space?”
For anyone who has seen what these children go through, that question can sound harsh. But it’s also real. Hospital space is expensive and every square meter is contested.
The answer, backed by years of practice, is that Child Life Services pay off in both human and economic terms. When children are prepared and less anxious, procedures are smoother, schedules are less disrupted and staff spend less time trying to calm distressed patients. For some high-cost procedures like MRI, proper preparation can reduce or remove the need for sedation, which means direct savings in drugs, time and risk.
On top of that, families talk. Parents who know which hospitals offer Child Life Services are more likely to choose those hospitals for long and complex treatments whenever they have the option. In a competitive healthcare environment, a hospital that takes children’s emotional health seriously stands out.
5. The gap between need and access is huge
The numbers are stark.
According to the Department of Health and WHO, there are currently 35 cancer access sites across the country providing medicines for the most common cancers. Yet only 11 hospitals offer Child Life Services—and just nine of them are supported by Kythe Foundation.
Among these are Kythe’s nine partner hospitals, spread across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao: Philippine Children’s Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Philippine Orthopedic Center, Perpetual Succour – Cebu Cancer Institute, Tarlac Provincial Hospital, Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center in Legazpi, Albay, Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, and Cotabato Regional Medical Center in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
There are also hospitals that offer Child Life support outside of Kythe’s umbrella. Southern Philippines Medical Center, whose coordinator Kythe once trained, continues the work independently. Cardinal Santos Medical Center has taken steps to integrate Child Life into pediatric care. And in Ortigas, The Medical City quietly holds a national distinction: it is the only hospital in the country with a certified child life specialist consultant, underscoring just how rare this level of support truly is.
Set those figures beside the reality that around 5,000 Filipino children are diagnosed with cancer every year, and that this number does not even include other chronic illnesses. The gap becomes impossible to ignore. Thousands of children and families walk into hospitals every year without any structured psychosocial support, even though national policy already recognizes the importance of child friendly, holistic care.
If more parents knew which hospitals had Child Life programs, many would choose those facilities whenever possible. Given a choice between a hospital that treats only the disease and one that also protects a child’s emotional and psychological health, it is clear where most families would rather go.
Why this has to change now
Kythe’s work started with a simple idea: children in hospitals should still be allowed to play, to understand what is happening to them and to feel that they are more than their illness. More than three decades later, that idea has grown into a structured Child Life program that has reached tens of thousands of children.
Yet in a country where thousands of children are diagnosed with cancer every year, and millions live with chronic illness, the majority still go through treatment without this kind of support.
For parents, this means one urgent takeaway. Whenever you have a choice, ask if the hospital has Child Life Services or a Child Life Coordinator. If it does, that hospital is not just treating your child’s body. It is also protecting their sense of safety, dignity and hope.
For mothers like Marinel, whose days are measured in lab results, transfusion schedules and quiet prayers at the bedside, Child Life Services offer something medicine alone cannot give. They create moments where her child can laugh, play and understand what is happening, and moments where she herself can breathe. In the middle of fear and uncertainty, they give her one more reason to keep believing that her child’s life can still hold joy.
