1. Instructions on use of this template: This PowerPoint was created by child life specialists on the Professional Resources Committee as a resource for your use. It may be used to educate team members and students in your practice. You may use it “as is,” or you may customize it by adding graphics or photos, selecting only a subset of slides, or integrating some of the slides into your own presentation, as appropriate for your audience. Please include the next slide (slide 2) in your presentation, either at the beginning, or end. Please remove this slide (slide 1) prior to use.

2. Our Thanks to: The Professional Resources Committee of the Child Life Council, who provided a template to help in the creation of this presentation for our audience.

3. Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation A Child Life Specialist’s role

4. Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Infants, children, and adults have the potential to give the gift of life through organ, tissue, and eye donation. Types of organ donation: – Donation after brain death – Donation after cardiac death – Tissue and eye donation

5. Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation

6. A Child Life Specialist’s Role in Donation The child life specialist may support the family in the following ways: – Offer active listening during the different stages of grief – Help siblings or other children in the family understand the donation process – Ensure the family has the resources necessary to sustain themselves for the next several days at the hospital. This may require the child life specialist to put the family in touch with additional professionals such as social work and chaplaincy. – The child life specialist may offer therapeutic play activities and legacy building activities to children to help them cope with and process the death and donation process.

7. A Child Life Specialist’s Role in Donation Memory making: Our donor families, families of young or old donors, value memory making very much. The child life specialist may assist in the memory making process by creating a variety of legacy crafts such as: – Hand molds – Handprints – Locks of hair It is important to include families in the memory making process.

8. A Child Life Specialist’s Role in Donation Diagnostic teaching: The child life specialist can be instrumental in helping families understand brain death as a clinical diagnosis.

9. Developmental Explanation of Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Age 0-3: Children in this age range do not have the communication and/or cognitive skills to learn about the donation process. These young children, though, still need support. You can help these children by encouraging families to try to maintain their schedule as much as possible, and provide extra hugs and snuggles.

10. Developmental Explanation of Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Ages 3-5 – At this age, children are consumed with fantasy and imagination. – It is normal for children of this age to imagine the organ donation process in a variety of ways, some of which may invoke fear and anxiety. The explanation of donation and death may best be explained through therapeutic and expressive play.

11. Developmental Explanation of Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Ages 6-12: -At this age, children mostly process information very concretely. The ability for abstract thought usually does not develop until around 11 years old. -It is normal for children of this age to be curious about the physical aspects of death and dying. They may have questions that seem “morbid,” but are developmentally appropriate. Support children this age with simple, honest answers.

12. Developmental Explanation of Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Ages 13-18: – At this age, teenagers are very reliant on support from peers and are struggling to find their identity. – It is normal for children of this age to distance themselves from the situation as they are processing their emotions.

13. Developmental Explanation of Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation Considerations: – If a patient is not officially brain dead, instead of saying the brain is dead, you can say that the brain is sick. – Religious/cultural beliefs

14. Resources Resources for Professionals: – Taylor’s Gift: http://taylorsgift.org/http://taylorsgift.org/ Children’s Books – Saving Daddy, by: Patricia Abdulla – Pieces of Me, by: Amber Kizer – What Every Kid Needs to Know about Organ Transplants: – http://www.unos.org/docs/WEKNTK.pdf – Mommy Can Play Again: http://www.trioweb.org/MommyCanPlayAgain.pdf http://www.trioweb.org/MommyCanPlayAgain.pdf – Children Need to Know About Donation, Too! http://www.donatelifeillinois.org/index.php/children-need-to- know/ http://www.donatelifeillinois.org/index.php/children-need-to- know/

15. Contact Please add your department’s contact information here.