The clowns from Le Rire doctor have been working for ten years for child victims of abuse at the Orléans hospital. A birthday celebrated Wednesday October 9 in the presence of Laeticia Hallyday, engaged on the subject for ten years.
Bringing laughter after the tears. For ten years, the Le Rire doctor association has been working within the Children in Danger Pediatric Unit (Uaped), which takes care of mistreated children, victims of physical and/or sexual violence, at the Orléans hospital. .
A birthday which was celebrated on Wednesday October 9 at the university hospital center (CHU), in the presence of Laeticia Hallyday. She founded the La Bonne Etoile association, which supports children in danger. She met Barbara Tisseron, the head of the unit, several years ago. “An exceptional human encounter”, points out Laeticia Hallyday. In 2017, she came to inaugurate a confrontation room for child victims of violence, allowing them to be confronted with the alleged perpetrator, without the perpetrator being present in the same room as him.
At Orléans hospital, a special unit listens to child victims of violence
“The clowns intervene when the children are in the waiting room. We see that it can really help them take a step to enter the unit,” underlines Barbara Tisseron, more than happy with this partnership established in 2014. A dozen clowns, from Orléans and Tours, take turns today to come and bring, once a week, this support and this laughter to children with fractured backgrounds.
Adapt their interventions
The specificity of the unit obliges these actors, who can also intervene in other services, to adapt their performance and their interventions, points out Barbara Tisseron. Avoid sudden gestures, scenes of argument, for example, which are likely to bring up certain traumas. A game on the edge which also involves listening “They are very attentive to the needs of the child, we don’t necessarily know in what state they arrive and we don’t want to give too much information to the actors so as not to It embolizes their game.”
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“Ten years ago, it was a question of whether clowns had their place in this type of unit. For a very long time, we were the only ones to do it. Today, no one questions that. When we sees them in action, it wins support, it’s always extraordinary to see, more than to explain”, smiles Barbara Tisseron.
Dimitri Crozet
