A brave team of Dream Doctors are off to Chisinau, Moldova for the week to provide vital humanitarian relief to Ukrainian refugees. Dream Doctors will offer innovative trauma intervention techniques and tools to children and adults who were forced to flee their homes following Russia’s invasion.
The Dream Team is on a mission to reach a vast number of refugees flooding absorption centers in Chisinau, as well as thousands more who are still stuck at the Moldova-Ukraine border crossing area. Dream Doctors are not only multi-talented artists, they are highly skilled members of medical teams in 34 hospitals across Israel and have extensive experience working in humanitarian relief missions to disaster zones around the world.
“This mission is not a first for Dream Doctors. It’s Israel. It’s part of our DNA to be wherever we are needed,” said Tsour Shriqui, CEO of Dream Doctors.
Over the past 16 years, Dream Doctors have participated in overseas humanitarian relief missions to Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Nepal and the United States, among others. Most recently, in 2018 Dream Doctors shared its unique toolbox for trauma relief with the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania following the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Patients can’t help but smile when they see a red nose stuck on an N95 mask behind a plastic shield covered in silly stickers.
Arizona resident Carrie Mork contracted Covid-19 while touring Egypt in March. Her symptoms began shortly after her group got to Israel. For the next month she was in a hospital near Tiberias, far from everything familiar.
The doctors and nurses at Poriya Medical Center saved Mork’s life. What saved her sanity were the Dream Doctors therapeutic clowns on Poriya’s staff.
On her second day in the hospital, Mork was asked to come to the window separating the patient area from the medical monitoring area. She saw two clowns waving at her.
“She looked at us, a bit puzzled, and picked up the telephone on the other side,” recalls Shoshi Ofir, aka Dr. Hearta, who’s been working as a medical clown at Poriya for 16 years.
Dream Doctors Shoshi Ofir, left, and Tal Shtein at Poriya Medical Center with patient Carrie Monk behind the window. Photo: courtesy
“She asked us if we speak English. I said yes, and she said, ‘What a relief! I need help with something, and I don’t know who to talk to.’
“It’s not that nobody on the staff spoke English. But she felt more comfortable turning to us because no matter the condition of the patient, the clown’s situation is always worse,” says Ofir, referring to the zany appearance that makes a medical clown a purposely unintimidating member of the medical team.
Next day, when Ofir and another Dream Doctor came to the window, “Carrie almost ran to us. We could see her smiling despite her mask. We played music over the loudspeaker and she was dancing with us on the other side of the window.”
Now recovered, Mork tells ISRAEL21c: “Having the clowns there was really uplifting and gave me something to smile about when I was just not feeling well. Their laughing and acting silly gave me something to look forward to and brightened my day. Shoshi even found out the state song of Arizona and played it for me so I would feel like I was home.”
Dream Doctors Director Tsour Shriqui tells ISRAEL21c that Israel is the only country where medical clowns are still working regular shifts in hospitals since the coronavirus outbreak, and directly with Covid-19 patients.
“Here in Israel, so far only a few hospitals have allowed it but we expect more to follow. It’s very trailblazing,” he says.
Red nose behind the face shield
Dream Doctor David “Dush” Barashi suited up for the corona ward at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem. Photo: courtesy
David “DuSH” Barashi has been a Dream Doctor at Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem for 18 years and has participated in many humanitarian missions abroad.
In June, Hadassah’s management trained Barashi in personal protective equipment (PPE) and hygiene protocols to enter the corona ward; until then he and other staff Dream Doctors had been interacting through a window, as Ofir did at Poriya.
“As far as we know, I was the first clown in the world to go inside a corona ward,” Barashi tells ISRAEL21c. He created his own Covid clowning protocols.
“It’s about how to be unique with the mask and the PPE so people understand this is a clown when the silhouette of the clown has disappeared,” he says.
“It’s important for a clown to look unique so people can look at you and laugh. Only then can you start to make a change.”
As the video below shows, Hadassah’s Dream Doctors decorate their PPE with stickers and wrap an adult diaper around their coveralls to look extra ridiculous and non-threatening. Below the cuffed coveralls peek outrageously loud socks and clown shoes encased in disposable covers.
“People know immediately something is wrong with this guy. And then they see the red nose on the N95 mask behind the plastic face shield, and they smile,” Barashi says.
“I use the same techniques with corona patients as in any hospital or disaster zone — a positive dynamic where your body is in a tight balance while you’re playing an imbalanced person,” says Barashi.
“But you have on two masks and a plastic screen, so you need to create communication with people essentially in a huge box. I have to bring a lot of energy to break the walls. I need to speak louder so they can hear me, and I do that in a funny way,” he says.
“We use a lot of black humor with corona patients. It’s all about changing how we look at the reality, through a comic filter. Then we can communicate freely and start talking about anything and everything.”
Since June, the Hadassah Dream Doctors have been ending their day’s shift in the corona ward three times a week, two at a time, and have cheered more than 100 patients.
Waving bubbles
Ofir and three other Dream Doctors at Poriya began working inside corona patient rooms on October 1 at the request of the head nurse, who saw how therapeutic the window visits were.
“The nurse said that some patients deteriorate although their vitals seem fine, and it can be the emotional state that brings them down,” says Ofir. “They saw that the patients were much better after our visits.”
So were the staffers. “Often we felt we were there for the medical team as much as for the patients,” says Ofir.
Like Barashi, Ofir developed situation-specific protocols. Even little things must be done differently – like waving the bubble wand instead of blowing into it.
“One of the major issues was to create an intimacy with the person while staying at least 2 meters away, wearing a mask. At our staff meetings, we focused on ways to make the physical distance somehow feel smaller. One thing we did was play music that we both could enjoy.”
Needed and loved
Ofir recalls preparing to enter the room of a corona patient who’d suffered a miscarriage and surprisingly tested positive for Covid-19 upon her hospital admission.
“It was so frightening on top of everything else she was going through,” says Ofir. “So we walked in her room and said, ‘You look great!’ And she said, ‘I recognize your voice!’ It turns out she was a nursing student. I give a one-hour lecture each year to nursing students, and somehow she remembered my voice.”
After about 15 minutes with the Dream Doctors, the patient said to Ofir, “Wow, you told us about medical clowning but now I feel how it really works.”
Ofir came upon another patient having a video call with her kids. She was speaking in Arabic, but it was clear that the mood was “emotional and sad. So I just started singing and dancing and asked her to turn the screen toward me, and I saw all her kids get up and start dancing with me. Her face lit up and the whole mood changed.
“And when you’re in a better mood you breathe easier and everything feels better.”
After Carrie Mork went home, she and “Dr. Hearta” had a video call. “It was the first time we saw one another without masks. We talked for an hour,” says Ofir.
Mork then messaged the Dream Doctor: “I wanted to tell you how healing your phone call was. When I left the hospital, I still had a lot of leftover emotions and our call helped to release them. … Keep being a clown. You are needed and loved.”
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It’s another routine day in Hadassah Hospital’s COVID-19 ward, yet nothing is routine when Dream Doctors are around. “Welcome, welcome! Today we have a new couple, the Bitons, who decided to take a family vacation to our ward!”
Armed with humor, unconventional protective suits, colorful stickers, bright red noses and two layers of masks, Dream Doctors are cheering up corona patients by making them laugh and helping ease their loneliness. Connecting with patients helps them feel less alone and like “we’re in this together”. Dream Doctors are working hand-in-hand with medical teams to boost patients’ spirits.
Coronavirus patients at Poriyah Medical Center smiled with joy and excitement to meet with Dream Doctors inside their rooms for the first time this week. Leaders of this trailblazing initiative worldwide, Dream Doctors are the first medical clowns to work directly with corona patients inside corona wards.
Article translated from Hebrew publication LELO HAGBALA
Photo left: Mia Tzaban, spokeswoman at the Poriyah Medical Center with Dream Doctors Shoshi Ofir and Tal Stein.
Since August, more and more Israeli hospitals are recognizing the urgent need for emotional relief for coronavirus patients. Dream Doctor DR. HARTA (Shoshi Ofir) explains, “The second wave brought in more patients, many of whom are in critical condition. In addition to fighting their physical ailments, they are also struggling emotionally. Many feel like they’re some kind of leper because no one wants to come near them. The nurses usually go in and out very quickly and are almost unidentifiable in their protective gear. They feel guilty for being infected and are afraid of infecting others. We’re there to help raise their self-esteem, overcome guilt and give them the feeling that they’re wanted, loved and important. ”
The hospital’s director, Dr. Erez Onn said, “We have no doubt that medical clowns have a very significant contribution to make in improving the atmosphere and lifting patients’ spirits. Seeing them on a daily basis will help patients maintain a positive and optimistic attitude. This is even more important in corona wards where patients are physically and emotionally disconnected from their families- and even the medical staff- for days or weeks on end.” Before entering the ward, the clowns underwent a detailed training with Ilana Aharon, an epidemiological supervisor in the Infection Prevention Unit.
DD clown, DR. TILL (Tal Stein) said after the first session, “We could feel a renewal of energy and strength among the patients. We brought them connection them to the outside world and the experience of human touch. Every patient wanted to talk to us and asked us to come again”. Shoshi Ofir concluded, “We plan to go into the corona ward every day. We create a personal connection with the patients through singing, laughing, dancing, listening and chatting with them in a spirit of nonsense. It’s very moving to see the patients smile with so much joy”.
Already in the first wave, Poriyah Medical Center was the first to incorporate Dream Doctors in the treatment of corona patients, but activity was limited to working behind the nurses’ station, and the clowns could only communicate with patients through a sealed window.
The medical center’s director, Dr. Erez Onn said, “We have no doubt that medical clowns have a very significant contribution to make in improving the hospital’s atmosphere and lifting patients’ moods. Meeting Dream Doctors on a daily basis will help patients maintain a positive and optimistic attitude. This is particularly important in corona wards where patients are physically and emotionally distanced from their families- and even the medical care staff- for days or weeks on end.”
Studies show that the feeling of happiness happens as a result of smiling – not the other way around, as is commonly thought.
In an interview with DD ‘DR. PROFESSOR’, Dr. Amnon Raviv shares how medical clowning is helping fight corona and ‘healing the world’ through humour and love. “When critically ill patients see Raviv standing in the doorway, a huge smile instantly appears on their faces. For long moments at a time, they forget all of the medical, mental and emotional problems that surround them…when you can laugh about a painful subject, you reduce the fear and pain”.
“A person can reach the gates of death, God forbid, out of sadness. Then suddenly a person comes before him and smiles at him. He helps the sun shine for this person by greeting him with kindness. This act revives his spirit and saves him!” (from a Breslov Chassidic story).
There are so many blessings that we say to each other on Rosh Hashana that express our desire for a good and happy new year, one that will be different from the previous year. I decided to start the new year with a conversation with Dr. Amnon Raviv, the medical clown who puts a smile on the faces of so many patients, as well as hospitals’ medical staff.
“Israel’s ‘Dream Doctors’ are the only medical clowns in the world who have continued to work in hospitals since the beginning of the corona outbreak,” said Raviv. “Since corona became the backdrop of our lives, it’s been strictly forbidden to visit patients in Herzfeld. For patients with serious illness, this has added significant insult to injury- causing them to drop further into depression as a result of loneliness, disconnection from family and media sources reiterating the message that they are an at-risk population. I was asked to start coming to the hospital four times a week. I’ve tried to the best of my ability to raise their morale, to sing and laugh with them even from behind my mask, gloves, skirt and red nose. When you can laugh about a painful subject, you reduce the fear and pain,” he added.
Patients look forward to Raviv’s visit with anticipation and tell him how much the visits help them feel better. For long moments at a time, they forget all of the medical, mental and emotional problems that surround them. Raviv interacts with a wide range of patients, among them, those with mild conditions in the waiting rooms, as well as patients confined to their beds. When critically ill patients see Raviv standing in the doorway, a huge smile instantly appears on their faces.
It seems like there are many places in the world that are now exposed to the second wave of corona. What should the elderly do, stay at home until the end of this crisis
“Currently the situation in Israel made a turn for the worse and there is a three-week lockdown over the holidays. Last month, to the relief of many, one family member at a time was allowed to visit patients in hospitals. These kinds of decisions must take into consideration the benefits vs. the risks of isolation and should include not only the risk of physical health but mental health as well. Raviv explained, “it’s not enough for people to see their loved ones virtualy, they need in-person connection. If you keep a safe distance of two meters, then patients can and should be able to safely meet and interact with their families”.
Have you dealt with this issue personally?
“Yes. My mother is a resident of a nursing home that has been closed on and off for several weeks at a time. Every time a corona patient was found in her ward, everyone had to go into isolation. I saw first-hand how badly the isolation affected her. I told the director of the nursing home that we, her family, needed to visit her, even if only from a distance. We stood in front of her balcony, about ten meters away and talked to her. I told her how much I love her and being there showed her how much I care. This pandemic has caused her to feel so isolated, alone and depressed. It is our right, or rather our duty, to take care of her. We also celebrated her birthday together with my brother and sister. The nursing home management granted permission for us to meet with her outside in the garden at a safe distance from her. In my opinion, the risk of death from depression and isolation is equivalent to the risk of contracting the coronavirus.
Celebrities and politicians from every end of the political spectrum have come through Assaf Harofeh Hospital. “At the hospital there are no coalitions and there is no opposition.” Raviv laughed. “Everyone there is anxious. They’re just waiting for a clown to come and make them laugh to help reduce their anxiety. We’re all in the same boat and headed in the same direction- to hope for the best.”
Raviv has been working as a medical clown for almost two decades as part of the ‘Dream Doctors Project’, and has published many articles on medical clowning, including his book “Medical Clowning – The Healing Performance,” published by Siegel and the University of Chicago. Raviv is the first person in the world to have been awarded a doctorate in medical clowning. He currently divides his time between the Herzfeld Geriatric and Rehabilitation Hospital, the Oncology Department at Tel Hashomer and the emergency room at Assaf Harofeh. Among other things, he teaches at Tel Chai College and is currently planning a medical clowning workshop at the Academic College in the Western Galilee.
Raviv gets tested for corona on an ongoing basis to protect the safety of his patients. He’s exploring how to fight the coronavirus mentally and emotionally and continues to make life better for patients by putting a smile on everyone’s face.
“A smile costs nothing but gives much.It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give.Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give”.
May it be a happy, healthy and sweet new year to all the people of Israel!
Excerpts translated from an article written by Anat Taner, published on Ynet
“Today we know that it is not possible to treat the body without taking care of the soul”.
Senior DD clown, Amnon Raviv, who just got a rave review from the European Journal of Humor Research for his brilliant book, “The Healing Performance” (2018), and his trailblazing research in the field of medical clowning. Raviv, aka ‘PROFESSOR DR.’, is the first medical clown in the world to earn a Ph.D. for medical clowning!
Raviv has been a part of the Dream Doctors Project since its founding and has worked as a medical clown at the Tel Hashomer Hospital, the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus, and the Herzfeld Geriatric Medical Center in Gedera.
Thank you Rabbi Benji for visiting us and sharing the inspirational work of Dream Doctor Slinky (aka Ariel Keren) at ALYN Hospital Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem!
Please enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at how medical clowns work in this world-renowned pediatric rehabilitation hospital…
The Dream Doctors Project is proud of the immigrants from all over the world who work as medical clowns in medical centers all across Israel. This is an incredibly diverse country and our hospitals reflect that diversity. Just like our patients and medical staff, Dream Doctors medical clowns speak many languages, come from many cultural backgrounds and belong to many faiths.
We thank The Jewish Agency for Israel for this wonderful profile (in Hebrew) of Dream Doctor Stuart Kingston, an immigrant to Israel from the UK, who works at Wolfson Hospital in Holon.
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ban, spokeswoman at the Poriyah Medical Center with Dream Doctors Shoshi Ofir and Tal Stein.
- עיצוב ובניית אתרים