CC Partners with Children’s Inn on Teen Program

Episode #23
Uploaded:  Aug. 12, 2009
Running Time:  2:28

SCHMALFELDT:  From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.  It’s tough enough being a teenager.  Imagine being a teen AND having a medical condition requiring treatment or having a brother or sister or other family member in a situation like that.  The Clinical Center’s Rehabilitation Medicine Department, working with the NIH Children’s Inn, is trying to make things a little easier for teen patients and siblings with a monthly program specifically geared for teenagers.  Donna Gregory is chief of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department’s Recreation Therapy section.

GREGORY:  A lot of what we do at the Clinical center and the Children’s Inn is geared towards younger kids, and so we were provided information from teenagers themselves that we need to focus a little bit more on their needs.  So, it was created out of a teen-driven initiative.  I collaborate closely with the Children’s Inn to create “Teen Nights” which involve the Children’s Inn having an activity specifically for teens in the building.  And then, there is also a teen program at the Clinical Center for teens who are not well enough to go to the Children’s Inn.

SCHMALFELDT:  This is the third year for these “teen retreats,” which Gregory said are two-day comprehensive “all teen, all the time” programs that balance between age-appropriate teen activities, along with team-building exercises to help teens recognize that they are not alone in the experience of being a teenaged patient or sibling at the NIH Clinical Center.

GREGORY:  The logo for the teen retreat is “hope, strength and unity,” and that is also on the t-shirt.  Each teenager gets a t-shirt, which also kind of gives them the sense of unity and community with fellow teens, so that during that two-day window, you see a lot of teens around the Clinical Center sporting their teen retreat t-shirts.

SCHMALFELDT:  To learn more about this program, or to find out more about the NIH Clinical Center, including news about the medical research going on here every day, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.  In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.