Bring on the (hospital) clowns!

Our local health authority here in Bergen, together with the Grieg Foundation and GC Rieber Foundation pays NOK473,000 (about £49,000) each year for 6 clowns to visit the children's wards at Haukeland University Hospital 8 times a month. The clowns are also regular visitors to several homes for the elderly n the Region.

The clowns are clowns, i.e. professional artistes not doctors or nurses dressed as clowns. Their make-up is very toned down so it is more red nose than white face, but the crazy clothing and large shoes are still part of the outfit.

The consensus here is that the clowns make the children and their parents happy, and distract them from what may otherwise be difficult and emotionally draining periods. They cannot always make a difference though. One clown in the local paper 'Byavisen' was quoted as saying that it is never easy going into a ward or room containing a very sick child, although you gradually get used to it, and also that it demands alot of insight into reading that child's emotional state when they do go in. Sometimes, they get it right and other times they don't.

These clown are there to distract with whatever they have at their disposal. A globe, spinnng on a finger starts a magic trip to Australia for one child, finding a marble in a plastic flower brings smiles to another.

Considering though that the 10th most searched for phobia on google is fear of clowns or coulrophobia, maybe the idea is not as good as it first appears. The clown persona is one that hides behind a smiley mask and maybe is not as funny and kind as it appears. Most children know Krusty the clown in the Simpsons (not the most positive person in the world), and there are plenty of horror films where clowns are difinitely not your funniest friend - Stephen King's It anyone?