Medical Clowns Help Israeli Children Heal

Hospitals can be scary places for children. But a visit from a clown can do much to cheer up young patients. These red-nosed, bubble blowing  clowns aren’t like the ones you find in the circus, they are trained professionals who change the environment to something less threatening for hospitalized children.

While scientists have known for years that the clowns have a positive influence, stressed a news release from Tel Aviv University, the importance of medical clowning cannot be understated.

In a 2022 study published in Qualitative Health Research, the researchers identified 40 different skills that medical clowns use including increasing the patient’s adherence to medical treatment. Medical clowns help the patients, the family, and the medical team.

“From the moment they enter the room, the clowns form a bond with the patients, strengthen them, and give them power and status within the medical system,” Professor Orit Karnieli-Miller, who led the research team, said in the university’s press release. “They do this through an initial connection to the patients’ voice, and even to the patients’ reluctance to implement therapeutic recommendations – an emotional connection that often results in the patient changing their position and cooperating with the medical staff.”

Medical Clowning
Israel has become a world leader in medical clowning, reported JTA, over the last three decades and there are two main organizations as well as a bachelor’s degree program at Haifa University to train the clowns.

One of the organizations, Simchat Halev, has around 500 volunteer therapeutic medical clowns in hospitals. The clowns come from a variety of backgrounds and education levels. Some come from theatre backgrounds and others come from a large range of occupations.

The Dream Doctors organization that was founded in 2002 went in a different direction and created 100 salaried medical clowns in 30 hospitals where they work together with hospital teams and even take part in medical procedures. The nonprofit has also been a pioneer in placing medical clowns in rehab centers, trauma care and with adult patients.

One of the clowns, Smadar Harpak – whose clown name is Shemesh – has been with Dream Doctors for 17 years In 2015, she helped create the Clownbulance which is like an ambulance that is used to take ill and traumatized children out for a day of fun.

After children who were hostages in Gaza were released, the Clownbulance took some of them on a jeep excursion.

“There are kids who have really lost faith in humanity,” Harpak told JTA. “They can’t just be trapped in a hospital. I want them to go out, remember life outside, and just be normal for a day.”

An Expanded Role After October 7
After Hamas attacked Israel and brutally massacred or kidnapped thousands of people on October 7, medical clowns took on a much larger role in trauma wards and became part of the emergency response. The clowns worked with traumatized populations including hostage families alongside psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists.

“When I clown, I’m saying, this happened and what can I do about it?” Harpak said. “I choose to emphasize the positive.”

Medical clown Shira Friedlander – known as Shorty – is one of seven medical clowns working at Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, also known as Ichilov. She has taken drama classes since childhood and graduated from Haifa University’s medical clowning program. She summed it up by saying that medical staff must focus on the part of the patient who is sick. Medical clowns look at the part that is still healthy.

“Whatever situation the patient is in, there is always a healthy side,” Friedlander said. “The clown’s job is to help a person look at things from a different place. When everything is stuck and clogged, finding and opening that part allows things to flow [and] to move.”