Navigating Through Mental Health/Life Studies

Author: Ellie Francoeur

Chariho alum, Kaitlin Dobson

Finding a fun, fulfilling job that includes the population you want to work with is difficult; but the life studies field is a good one if you like to boost people’s spirits and give them something to distract themselves from reality. Life studies is a great field to enter when your interest is to impact people’s lives in a positive way. Specifically, being a Child Life Specialist is a very rewarding career if working to boost the spirits of children is important to you. This field allows the specialist to strive to be a bright light in someone's darkness, especially since the environment the client would be in is often stressful, scary, or uncomfortable for them. A benefit of pursuing a life specialty is the opportunity to work in various places in the medical field (in various places) or education field (as counselor-like personnel). In a hospital setting jobs for a Child Life Specialist are open in infusions, trauma, emergency rooms, radiation/chemo, and many other areas of medicine; and positions are also available in pediatric clinics and schools. Picking a place to work in the field depends on the background you have as a person, and where you feel you are the most beneficial to children. The journey through the education of Child Life helps you, in the long run, to advocate for your education and opportunities. It helps to boost your understanding of various topics to help you be an active worker in the field, and also provides you with your own knowledge as you continue to develop through life with the people around you.

Advocating for yourself and reflecting on issues you face while entering the field is vital in order to pursue a successful place in this career. An interview was done with former Chariho High School student, Kaitlin Dobson. Dobson initially went to college to study elementary education, at Rhode Island College (RIC)in her second semester of college, Kaitlin began second-guessing a career in teaching and transferred into a youth development class. She started to gain the mindset of being in the Child Life field and finally pursued this transfer of majors once she researched it more. As Dobson learned more about the field she decided to become involved in a volunteering program at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, in Providence, Rhode Island. This attempt was squashed when the pandemic hit hard in 2020 and hospitals closed down the volunteering opportunities. In the fall semester of 2020, Dobson transferred to APU (American Public University) and participated in online classes to get her degree in Human Development and Family Studies. She was able to then pursue her volunteering, where she earned “volunteer of the month” and gained the experience that the field requires. The nice thing about the Child Life field is that lessons and experiences help to shape your understanding of your own life. Not only are you benefiting your patients, but your patients help shape your career. The knowledge that is gained from this field is relevant on an everyday basis as there is so much research that has been done that can relate to others in your life. For example, you can reflect on your life and development and apply these strategies to your own growth and learning.

Not only does this job improve your skills outside of the setting, but life experiences help to boost your knowledge inside the career. Boosting your knowledge in anything helps to better understand what the children are going through, whether the knowledge helps you understand something they believe in or like. Being well-rounded is very beneficial to becoming the best specialist you can be. Experience is also a necessity for joining this field. Experiences in high school can help shape your future education in this field. This could include volunteering to help out at school events, working in the community, etc. Kaitlin Dobson started shaping her education with children by assisting in teaching at her local dance studio and doing internships in high school at elementary schools. This job can give many the satisfaction of feeling like you are making a difference to children. One difficult part of the job is the mental and physical burnout associated with helping kids with significant needs., In this job, if you aren’t feeling 100%, it becomes very hard to help others. Children build off of what is around them and they need you calm and mentally grounded.

Although burnout and mental well-being are needed in order to make a big difference in this career, this could be one of the barriers that make it difficult to pursue a career in this field. Finding a fun and self-rewarding job can be stressful but child life combines different types of therapy and it can introduce music, dance, art, dogs, etc. into the child’s life. You are able to distract and brighten the child’s day which is insanely important. As a worker in this field, you can insert yourself in different aspects of the child’s life including their education and the clinical setting.

For those interested in this field it is vital to build your own experience starting as soon as you possibly can, it is also a competitive field so being experienced gives you a better chance to be accepted into an internship. Lastly, while the journey to get through the Child Life program is very competitive it leaves you with great knowledge and experience that helps you in your work and home life.