BUENOS AIRES – Romina Amato knows it well: laughter really is the best medicine.
With her red nose and contagious sense of humour, this professional clown and psychologist is getting ready to go on stage.
The trick: she is performing where people are the least likely to want to laugh: a children’s hospital called Malvinas Argentinas. It is set in a low-income suburb surrounded with shantytowns, on the outskirts of the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires.
Following a law implemented on August 19, 2015 in the Buenos Aires province, Romina, Erica and Gonzalo, specialised clowns from the local NGO, Intensive Happiness will soon be required legally to entertain sick children in public paediatric hospitals.
The one-of-kind measure is far-reaching. The Buenos Aires province is the largest one in the South American nation – home to 40% of the country’s population.
A 2014 study from Loma Linda University in the United States found that a good laugh lowers stress, decreases pain and boosts feel-good neuro-chemicals.
“We have our own clown name because we are clowns. In the hospital, the reason why we wear a blouse and we play the role of Dr Perla in my case, is to get close to children but also so that they have another vision of the medical world, in this case, an artistic one. It allows them to get close in a different way. It is very nice for a child and his family to see a clown with a blouse make mistakes, be afraid and stumble. We can play on all these aspects that a doctor, because of his position as a knowledgeable (professional), cannot,” says Amato.
Intensive Happiness played a key role in developing the law. The organisation trains and places clowns in public paediatric hospitals.
“It is the first law on medical clowns in the world. This is the reason why it is so important that we work on regulating this law and that the law preserves its spirit of professional artists contracted to be on an equal footing with the team of doctors and medical professionals,” says Andres Kogan, the NGO’s Executive director and a paediatrician.
As they tiptoe into the intensive care room, Dr Perla, Erica Veliz aka Dr Estela Tarde, and Gonzalo Amor aka Dr Sencillo (“humble doctor” in English), are asking the permission of the sick children and their families to enter – in their own clown language.
Families are delighted, as the comedians perform jokes and tricks with their full-blown smile.
Laura Gomez, the mother two-month old son Santino, is thrilled with the project:
“Putting clowns in all hospitals is an incentive for children (to get better). It brings them joy because being in a hospital is not pleasant for children,” she says.
In a hospital ward where young patients can stay from one month up to one year, trained clowns are giving hope to medical staff too.
Their cheerful songs break the nurses’ routine and create a fun place to work.
“We love receiving them. The day they are expected to come, we get ready with my colleagues and we organise our schedule. When the clowns arrive, they always consult us to know where they can go and if they can be in contact with all the patients. We really love it,” says nurse, Susana Chocobar.
As children never lose the desire and need to play, the entertainers recreate a joyful playground to mitigate their pain and fear.
The job seems fun, but trained clowns also have clear rules to follow, such as learning children’s most common diseases and understanding biosecurity regulations.
The results are positive on children’s health, which is why the Malvinas Argentinas hospital plans to add a course in clown performance in its paediatrics department next year.
Dr Carlos Alberto Kambourian, the hospital’s Director and a paediatrician, explains the benefits.
“If a child needs to get medical treatment and do a venepuncture, the puncture hurts less with the clowns next to him. I affirm this. If a child needs to get oxygen (in a mask), it is probable that with the clowns on his side, the oxygen mask won’t bother him as much and this child will receive a higher concentration of oxygen. If a child can’t walk because he is injured, it is likely that with the clowns, his muscle will be stimulated so that he can move it in a more efficient way.”
No doubt then that laughing should be a key component of our daily life.
In the Laughter and Health school of self-improvement in Buenos Aires, workshops consist of laughing like a drain – no matter how forced the laughter is.
Mirtha Manno, the school’s co-founder and a speech therapist, is convinced of laughter’s therapeutic effects.
“All human beings were born with a smile. We simply have forgotten to laugh because disease, a dear relative passed away, or another very important thing that happened in life, overshadowed this smile. But peoples smiles are present in their hearts and we need to get them out,” she says.
The law is due to come into force in March 2016.
This video was produced exclusively for Associated Press on October 3, 2015. Click here to watch it.
