Pediatric Potential Inc.

Our Goal:
To improve hospital care for children in order to minimize developmental delay and facilitate positive lifetime health behaviors through the application of a human rights-based approach.

Our Approach:
We collaborate with partner hospitals, clinics and NGOs globally, in order to sustainably enhance evidenced-based pediatric psychosocial care practices.

Our Method:
To reinforce protective frameworks and optimize healthcare experiences for the children and families, we provide our partners an on-site strengths assessment, identify resources and services, and implement a strategy to support their goals.

We believe that in order for enhanced healthcare experiences for children and families to become sustainable, training must be accessible, culturally responsive and empower local healthcare practitioners to apply pediatric psychosocial care practices within the hospitals/clinics of their unique cultural contexts. For this reason, we employ the following approach to assist our global partners:

1. On-Site Visit
Each partnership opportunity is unique. As the first step in the process, we meet on-site with the team to learn about their organization, their goals and their resources.

2. Identify Partners' Potential
During this phase we work with partners to determine what resources and services will be best suited to assist them in reaching their desired goals.

3. Tailored Support Delivery
Once we have collaboratively identified a strategy to assist our partners in meeting their potential, we work to support sustainable program or process improvements.

Our services aim to foster new resources and sustainable support systems for our partner hospitals, clinics, and NGOs globally, enabling them to enhance protective frameworks and strengthen healthcare experiences for the children and families in their care.

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE:
Collaboratively identify strengths to enhance child-friendly engagement utilizing the Pediatric Patient's Hierarchy of Developmental Needs (PPHDN) © as a framework.

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN:
Promote development of accessible, child-friendly healthcare environments.

STAFF EDUCATION/TRAINING:
Facilitate skill development on appropriate language and engagement of pediatric patients.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT:
Creation or enhancement of sustainable pediatric psychosocial services and staffing.

RESEARCH:
Use and conduct research to support the positive impact of these services on individual organizations and communities.

RESOURCE FOSTERING:
Attract visionaries to our partners to support opportunities for psychosocial programming facilitation, research, and development through our global networks.

Services provided by Pediatric Potential are guided by the diverse educational and clinical experiences of our team, which ranges from North America, South East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent.

Our team developed the Pediatric Patient’s Hierarchy of Developmental Needs (PPHDN)©, which is a prioritization framework for addressing pediatric psychosocial care gaps and to inform evidence-based approaches for enhancing access to culturally responsive psychosocial care globally.

Pediatric Potential utilizes the PPHDN© as a lens for collaboratively learning about each organization's strengths and areas of potential in addressing patients’ psychosocial needs, with the ultimate goal being 'Developmental Well-being: Physical/Mental Health and Community Integration.'

PEDIATRIC PSYCHOSOCIAL ENHANCEMENT

INDIA
The Priyanka Foundation, Child Life Services Program; Bangalore

Service Development
- Consulted on psychosocial service enhancements with hospital and program leadership
- Assisted in the recruitment of a new team member

Resource Fostering
- Successful co-facilitation of a grant to support needed therapeutic materials and developmentally appropriate toys for children in hospital

Staff Education/Training
- Remote mentorship to Child Life Practitioner team members
- Facilitated pediatric psychosocial care education modules on-site

LAOS
Friends Without a Border (FWOB), Laos Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC); Luang Prabang

Service Development
- Consulted on psychosocial service enhancements with hospital and program leadership

Staff Education/Training
- Remote mentorship to their LFHC Child Life Therapist team member
- Supported the successful application for their LFHC Child Life Therapist to attend an international psychosocial care conference

Resource Fostering
- Successful co-facilitation of a grant to support needed therapeutic materials and developmentally appropriate toys for children in hospital

PALESTINE
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF); Ohio, USA and Ramallah
The Huda Al Masri Pediatric Cancer Department - West Bank
The Dr. Musa & Suhaila Nasir Pediatric Cancer Department - Gaza

Service Development
- Provided psychosocial support to a PCRF patient/family; post renal transplant abroad

Knowledge Exchange
- Facilitated site visits to two pediatric oncology departments in Palestine
- Developed a Summary Report & recommendations for increased psychosocial care initiatives based on the Pediatric Psychosocial Hierarchy
of Developmental Needs (PPHDN) model


PEDIATRIC RESEARCH

QATAR
Our team is at the end stage of collecting data for a multidisciplinary study titled ‘Parental Holding to Manage Children’s Anxiety with Venipuncture: Experiences from Qatar.’

ITALY
University of Turin, Department of Psychology; Turin
Submitted two research proposals to initiate collaborative research.


NEXT

Continued collaboration with our current partners and the development of innovative pediatric psychosocial care initiatives with global network partners in Palestine, Switzerland and the U.S., while continuing to identify and support the initiatives of new partners.

As a catalyst for facilitating sustainable change, Pediatric Potential will continue to embrace the value of building a diversity of stakeholders from a wide-array of expertise and backgrounds in academic, community based, and governmental settings worldwide to ensure the availability of connecting partners with the lasting resources needed to implement a psychosocially informed rights-based approach to pediatric health.

In addition, we aim to be a leading advocate by continuing to publish the results of our collaborative work in peer-reviewed publications, and presenting at relevant meetings and conferences.