HUMOUR AS PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT IN HEALTHCARE SETTINGS

HUMOUR AS PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT IN HEALTHCARE SETTINGS

RED NOSES INTERNATIONAL

Fear, anxiety, stress, sadness, and uncertainty are all common emotions for patients admitted to any healthcare institution. For long-term patients, boredom can be added to the list. Traditionally, there has been a lack of focus on the emotions of the individual human being when hospitalized, despite the best efforts, and instead a sole focus on the given disease or injury that needs to be treated, a focus on precise procedures. This is of course very understandable; people are in healthcare institutions not out of choice but out of necessity. When people are hospitalized, whether short- or long-term, they are ripped out of their ordinary lives and thrust into a parallel and very different world.

Healthcare clowning addresses several issues that are commonplace when people, especially children, are hospitalized. The mission statement of RED NOSES is to bring humour and laughter to people in need of joy. This reflects the deep needs of patients, their relatives, and the staff of healthcare institutions to feel alive and connected, through laughter and joy. RED NOSES is an international healthcare clowning organisation that works in healthcare institutions of all sorts in 11 countries in Europe and the Middle East. RED NOSES has been continuously expanding the scope of its operations since its founding in 1994 in Vienna, Austria.

Which issues are healthcare clowns universally addressing through their work? All the emotional challenges faced by hospitalized patients mentioned above are addressed by professionally trained healthcare clowns. Through humour and the almost Jungian-archetype-like nature of the clown itself, patients can regain an access to their emotions that is often severed by stress. The basic premise of clowning is that clowns accept every situation and never judge. This lets the patients feel a sense of relief, a sense of being understood without being put under scrutiny. By adding humour and playfulness to their encounter, clowns reach patients on an emotional level, cleverly bypassing defences through their (rehearsed) innocent naïveté and lightness. Clowns live in the present moment; they never give up, they inspire vitality and resilience. In this way, healthcare clowns can help patients to better accept their situation and work through their difficult emotions, all while they avoid being intrusive.

And of course, healthcare clowns bring excitement and fun! Many patients simply get lifted out of their worried or bored state of mind and daily routines by the atmosphere of celebration that healthcare clowns bring with them. Stress and fear can in this way be replaced by playful creativity. Clowns will lower their ‘status’ when needed for the patients to exert some level of control over their situation, giving the patients a feeling of being active agents in a setting where they are otherwise anything but.

A growing number of rigorous, peer-reviewed studies conclude that healthcare clowns have a genuine impact on mental and even physical health. Research also shows that it is not only the patients who interact with clowns that benefit; their relatives (parents especially) and the healthcare staff also benefit.

Most countries in the Western World have welldeveloped healthcare clowning organisations, and more and more countries throughout the world are following this trend, as the benefits of educated healthcare clowning become apparent. Here it is worth mentioning a ground-breaking 2019-report from WHO[1] that detailed the myriad connections that exist between art and health, including the positive effects of healthcare clowning.

Looking to the future, RED NOSES is developing new humour seminars for healthcare personnel, in schools and universities, as well as in healthcare institutions, focusing on the benefits of introducing humour in healthcare and how it can be applied to reduce stress and enhance inter-collegial cooperation.

This could perhaps become an asset in combatting the expected future shortage of nurses, as the nursing profession is predicted to face significant recruitment challenges, as the need for care grows and stress levels increase.

RED NOSES would like to see arts and culture become integral parts of the efforts to improve health and wellbeing outcomes as per SDG 3. It is RED NOSES’ determination to keep working tirelessly for a more gentle, more empathetic and, yes, a more humorous healthcare system.