The Mount Sinai Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy team recently opened a newly constructed Teen Lounge at the Mount Sinai Child Life Zone at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital. The team celebrated the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, June 6.
Thanks to a generous gift from the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation, a longtime partner and collaborator, the lounge meets the unique developmental needs of teenage patients and helps to minimize the stressors that they feel during a hospital stay. Promoting creativity, self-expression, and connectivity, the lounge offers teenage patients a place to socialize and connect, escape from their patient room, explore creative outlets, and relax and unwind.
The newly designed Teen Lounge features pods for patients to relax, read, and take photos; gaming stations with gaming systems and seating; and lounge seating for patients to watch movies and entertainment. There are also two large communal tables for art, games, and other activities, three colorful wall murals, and additional storage cabinets for art, music, play, and technology supplies.
“Being in the hospital, whether as an inpatient or outpatient, can be difficult and overwhelming for a teenager,” said Lisa M. Satlin, MD, Chair of Pediatrics for the Mount Sinai Health System and Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital. “We are delighted that we can give all of our adolescent patients a chance to unplug, forget why they are at the hospital, feel inspired, and have fun, even though they are in the hospital.”
“We have long recognized that adolescent patients face a unique set of challenges when coping with illness and hospitalization, and this new space allows us to provide a place that teens can call their own,” said Morgan Stojanowski, MS, CCLS, Director of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. “They can relax and interact with their peers and escape from the rest of the hospital. Especially for teens adjusting to a difficult illness or medical condition, this space gives them a safe haven to relax and be themselves.”
