Starlight Children's Foundation bases its support of children who are seriously ill on a variety of entertainment programs and services.
Starlight accomplishes this through six major components: outpatient programs include Wish Grantingand the Kids Activity Networkwhile in-patient programs include Hospital Fun Centers, Hospital Happenings, PC Pals and Starlight Sites.  These programs provide a vital outlet for children suffering from pain and the depression created by stress and isolation.
The effectiveness of our programs has been reported by medical professionals who work directly with our children on a daily basis. They repeatedly suggest that our "distractive entertainment" programs have actually reduced pain and therefore lessened the requests for pain medication.
Although these studies are preliminary, the data is significant enough to report and to incorporate in the Foundation's approach to state-of-the-art distractive entertainment therapy.
A study of children who participated in a variety of Starlight programs indicates a decrease in drug demand during and after entertainment therapy. Medical research confirms that Starlight's "distractive entertainment" programs may aid children to require less pain medication. As a result, we continue to explore new treatment concepts and programs.
Starlight's unique entertainment programs offer many opportunities for children to escape the drudgery of illness and the sometimes intimidating hospital atmosphere for a while. Starlight is inclusive. We fell that when a child in a family is sick, it affects the entire family. Parents and siblings don't get left out. |