East Alabama Health Welcomes Child Life Specialist Madison Newton

Hi! My name is Madison Newton, and I am a Certified Child Life Specialist. I completed both my undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Sciences - Child Life and my Masters in Social Work at Auburn. University. My clinical background includes practice at Beverly Knight Olson Children's Hospital (Macon, GA) and Sacred Heart Children's Hospital (Pensacola, FL).

I am the new child life specialist at EAH and am so excited to be working alongside the staff here! In my role I support hospitalized children and their families during their stay at EAH. As a child life specialist, I am a child development expert who works to ensure that life remains as normal as possible for children in health care settings and other challenging environments. I help to promote effective coping through play, self-expression, age-appropriate medical preparation/activities and bereavement support for families whose children die while hospitalized. I help to explain, educate and support families while they are here. Some ways I do this is through preparing children for medical procedures or treatment using language that they can understand. I introduce coping strategies to help reduce anxiety and enhance cooperation with the healthcare team, provide support and alternative focus during medical procedures, offer opportunities for expressive activities to encourage normal development and promote family centered care by providing advocacy and support to pediatric patients and their families. What I love most about child life is getting to provide psychosocial care to patients and their families during their medical treatment.

I am so looking forward to serving our families and staff here at EAH!