INDIANAPOLIS–Having a book to read sometimes helps people escape. If you’re in the hospital, you need to escape, said Dena Vincent, librarian at Riley Hospital for Children.
On the weekends and in the evenings, a library cart brings books and other media room-to-room, to patients who cannot leave their beds, to make sure every child gets the chance to read, said Vincent, who talked about the importance of reading for National Library Week.
“You can go to different places. You can go to your imagination and wonder and you’re not focused on what’s going on in the hospital,” said Vincent.
She said a study with parents who have kids in the NICU (intensive care) found the parents feel more connected to the child, feel more comfort, and feel more in control when they read to the child.
“We’ve had other families who come in, their child is dying. And, that’s the one thing they want to be able to do with that child is to read a book. That’s something normal they can do and it provides them comfort and they feel they are comforting that child.”