Children's hospitals across Australia and organisations that support them are trialling new ways to help ease their young patients' increasing feelings of anxiety and social isolation.
Ms Truscott said one thing that helped take some of the mental strain away was The Humour Foundation's Clown Doctors.
"Mason's rapping with them and singing with them and doctors and nurses are walking by and they can see the joy that these people bring to children," Ms Truscott said. "We can now zoom into rural, regional and remote Australia and we've now got programs happening in Townsville which we didn't have before, and there's a possibility of something happening in Armadale [in Western Australia] where we haven't had work before," Mr Symons said.Clown doctors Tanya Maxwell and Libby Dobson are back visiting children on Tasmanian public hospital wards after a five-month break.
"I'm a mum of two small kids, so I got to practice my clown skills at home, but it was really nice to get back on the ward and do what we're meant to do," Dr Wing It said. The hospital's child life therapist Carlie Alicastro said the live "be positive" show now ran five times a week — before the pandemic began it was only twice a week.
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