An Irish hospital clown says she and her colleagues' job is to "bring the joy" to children who've been hospitalised.
A study published in The BMJ this week showed hospital clowns might help improve physical symptoms and psychological well-being in children and teenagers being treated for acute or chronic conditions.
After two dozen trials, researchers in Brazil and Canada found that children who were in the presence of hospital clowns appeared to report "significantly less anxiety during a range of medical procedures".
Deborah Wiseman, a clown from Aoife’s Clown Doctor, told The Hard Shoulder that the research findings support what hospital clowns here in Ireland have felt for years.
She said: "God bless the scientists, because it backs up what we know to be intuitively true when we're working with kids in a hospital.
"Our Facebook page is inundated with messages from parents, thanking us all the time for helping to stop a child from crying, reduce confusion, anxiety... we're delighted with that research."
Deborah is an actor and writer who has been working as a clown for around ten years.
She told Kieran that she and her colleagues work across several of the country's children's hospitals, including Crumlin, Temple Street and Galway.
She explained: "Our job is to bring joy and laughter for children who are typically in hospital, away from their homes.
"So we try and lift the spirits of the whole family - obviously in hospital the medial procedures and serious side for kids [...] can be daunting and anxiety-inducing."
