Do you know what gelotologists are?

I doubt that, but in Israel there is such a profession, gelotology researches are carried out and it is studied at the university.

In simple phrase, a gelotologist is a medical clown, a person who relieves pain, fear and person’s stay at hospital. I think many of you have heard stories about how children are treated in Israel: the approach is not like ours. Instead of shouting, intimidating or forcing a child, kids are distracted with funny stories and bright costumes in the Israeli hospitals. Gelotologists’ work is so widely used in medical institutions of Israel that it is recognized as a separate paramedical profession.

It has long been known that laughter has a great healing effect, because during laughter our brain produces “happy hormones” - endorphins, which build up the immune system. In addition, the function of the cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems is improved, anti-stress hormones are produced. All these useful properties of laughter are used by the Israeli doctors.

In Haifa medical clowning is taught at the academic level. Admittedly, this therapy helps not only patients, but also doctors. It is believed that gelotologists work mainly in oncology departments, but in fact they help victims of accidents and violence, sexual harassment, those who have lost relatives or are depressed. They are invited to medical treatment rooms, ultrasound investigations, autotomography.

Another sphere of the Israeli gelotologists is work with elderly people. Very often, these people are loners, bad at making contacts, and gelotologists help them to deal with psychological problems. The effect of gelotologists’ work can be seen immediately.

For the moment only volunteers are working as “cheerful doctors” in the Ukrainian hospitals. But a volunteer cannot often be long in one place, cannot get through psychologically, has no special education and does not understand intricacies of the process. In Ukraine there are many educational institutions that have long ceased to learn anything new. I am confident that the introduction of gelotology to their course would be very helpful for everyone.