Involving Families in Child’s Development

The Ronald McDonald House provides family with a clean, safe, and supportive environment for free while their child is hospitalized. This allows families to be involved in their child’s development by ensuring more time is available to spent with their child’s development, be more involved in their medical care, and reduce financial strain. These aspects create a sense of normalcy and comfort, thus improving psychological wellbeing.

Stress factors increase for parents depending on work, finances, and if they have other children in the household to care for. Many parents are challenged by needing to balance daily activities with parenting an infant outside the home, needing to return to work, and/or having other children to care for at home (Pineda., et al., 2019). Allowing families to stay near the hospitalized child with other household members reduces the stress of creating life-balance. Additionally, free lodging and meals reduces financial strain during a time period where parents or caregivers are having to miss out on work to be with their sick or injured child.

Reducing stress and providing stability for families creates a more positive outlook, allowing better psychological outcomes and support for all parties. Families being involved in their child’s medical care ensures that household members are aware of any complications that could occur after discharge and increases parent and doctor communication, overall supporting better healing outcomes (Pineda., et al., 2019). Additional services available at the Ronald McDonald House to increase normalcy and support family after discharge include, events and activities, mobile care vans for preventative care for free for children, family support specialists on sight, and school or tutoring programs. Ronald McDonald House Charities believes that family involvement is the best medicine and works diligently to increase it.