For Patients and Families

TAC Projects

TAC has completed many projects that are social, educational and community oriented. These include:

• Teen Cart: This was the first project initiated by TAC. The committee felt that teens needed their own activities separate from the younger patients. To accomplish this, two carts filled with "teen only" activities were built and brought to the bedside of hospitalized teens by high school and college aged volunteers.
   
• Teen Cart Video: TAC members and the teen cart volunteers worked together to write, act in and edit a video to show to teen cart volunteers. Six skits were acted out with right and wrong ways to approach potential problems that might be encountered.
   
• Focus Groups:
  • assent to participate in research 
  • overall visual appeal of the hospital’s new web page design (web design team)
  • ethical considerations for social networking for patients and providers (hospital ethicist)
  • ease of searching the CHB website (web team)
  • TAC input regarding teen appeal of hospital food, inpatient rooms (bed linens, curtains, how to personalize each patient’s bedspace), waiting areas, hospital gowns, and electronic games (hospital administration)
  • how providers communicate with boys and young men
     
• Adolescent/Young Adult Healthcare Communication Project: TAC members believe that teens need to be included at an early age in making decisions about their health care so that they can gradually learn about their diagnosis, treatments and medications. They believe that if this is done, by age eighteen, they will be well prepared to take responsibility for their own care.
• • Results: We were pleased to find that most of the people who filled out the survey feel that Children’s Hospital does a good job including teens in making decisions about their care beginning at an early age.
     
• Additional Projects:
  • Hosting the annual hospital Education Fair, an event focusing on disability services offered by educational programs after high school.
  • Teen input to "Welcome to Children's Hospital" publication for inpatients.
  • Helped select several pieces of art for the new clinical building.
  • Participated in focus groups.
  • Videos of interest to teens and adolescents.
     
• Future Projects Planned:
  • "Ask the TAC" video series.
  • Continued development of video library of topics of interest and importance to adolescents.