Clown Care

A clown doctor or hospital clown is a clown ( semi-skilled actor ) occurring in hospitals and care institutions to give sick people there by means of humor renewed hope and courage. The appearance is usually in teams of two who always engage in close cooperation with the nursing staff of their task.

Description

Under the motto " Laughter is the best medicine " is an attempt to improve the emotional situation of the patients, which is often associated with boredom and desolation. The aim of the clowns the relaxation of the often dreary hospital atmosphere. You want to bring the patient to laugh and thus contribute to their faster recovery. This variety of therapeutic humor is now being researched and scientifically, the term clown therapy.

In vitro fertilization

In a study at an Israeli hospital, it was observed that the percentage of successful in vitro fertilization of 20 % increased with the visit of Clown Doctors to 36%.

History

The clown doctors go back to an idea of the U.S. clowns, jugglers and co-founder of the Big Apple Circus (New York City Circus ) Michael Christensen ( born 1957 ). In 1986, he developed the " clown doctoring " and founded the "Big Apple Circus Clown Care", an organization within the Big Apple Circus, the clowns sent in children's hospitals. This method quickly became internationally popular, as was founded in 1991 in Austria, the association CliniClowns, who conducted the first clown visits in Europe, 1993, the brothers Jan and André Poulie founded in Switzerland, the Foundation Theodora, In 1994, in Germany, the club clown doctors eV and in Austria, the association Red Nose Clown Doctors.