Mathea Jacobs, left, and David Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Mount Sinai Hospital
For young patients and their families, being in the hospital can be an especially difficult experience, with many unknowns. One of the staff at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital who strives to make these patients’ hospital stays positive and empowering is Mathea Jacobs, a program manager on the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy team, who has overseen KidZone TV for the past six years.
KidZone TV is a state-of-the-art, interactive production and internal broadcast studio within Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital. KidZone TV produces live programming for pediatric patients and families five times a day, seven days a week, which is broadcast throughout Kravis Children’s Hospital on a dedicated channel.
Learning, socialization, and creativity are promoted through popular interactive games like Bingo, Name That Tune, Text Twist, and KidZone Trivia shows. In addition, KidZone TV Presents features entertainers and celebrities who lend excitement to daily programming and includes collaborations with local cultural organizations such as the American Ballet Theater and Broadway Hearts. Children who are not confined to their rooms can participate as camera operators, storywriters, or hosts of the show, while others have the opportunity to view the program and participate by calling in and answering a question, creating a story, or winning prizes.
Mathea works with the department’s Child Life Specialists, Art and Music Therapists to help them host and create therapeutically rich and engaging live shows which strengthen the healing partnerships with their patients. In this process, Mathea gets to know our pediatric patients and is able to develop unique shows that engage, distract, educate, and bring joy throughout each day.
Mathea says she decided to take her production and creative skills into health care in order to do something “meaningful and important.”
She explains, “Bringing a child out of his or her shell and finding a new way of expressing feelings during a hospital stay is invaluable.” Her deep commitment to having the studio be a positive experience for hospitalized children extends even beyond the walls of Mount Sinai. With support from the Child Life and studio teams, she leads yearly training sessions for similar professionals in other hospitals, sharing knowledge and experience so that patients around the country might benefit from similar programming.
Recently Mathea was honored by David Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Mount Sinai Hospital, for her work and dedication in this year’s virtual pediatric/perinatal memorial service.
KidZoneTV programming has been generously funded for one year by the Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board.