Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) in Laguna Beach, CA. PMMC is a nonprofit marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation hospital as well as a research and educational center established in 1971.
Since 2015, PMMC has been offering distance learning programs around the country, including a free program called “Healing Seals”. Healing Seals was specifically developed to enhance the lives of adolescent patients undergoing treatment at pediatric hospitals by connecting them in live time to a marine educator who shares stories of the marine mammal patients and the procedures they are undergoing at PMMC’s hospital. Children draw parallels to their own experiences during the program and call down to the hospital’s production studio to have questions relayed to the presenter. Children also receive Ocean Discovery fun kits that include activities, toys and PMMC trading cards with the stories of animals who successfully finished rehabilitation and returned to their ocean home.
The program was first piloted in 2016 with the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), California through their Seacrest Studio. It has since expanded to nine children’s hospitals across the United States. The response to Healing Seals has been tremendous as witnessed by stories from the hospitals:
It has been a pleasure partnering with PMMC. There have been several occasions where we have had patients who have had feeding tubes in place…these patients truly light up when they learn that some of the seals need feeding tubes for nutrition, too!
The connections and ways that they relate to these animals is really special. We have seen patients and families take away some really inspirational messages from the program – Max Svec – Boston Children’s Hospital
Our studio is located right in the patient access area where lots families are waiting for a room, or to head to radiology, etc. One mom was in the Pediatric ICU waiting room and she made a point to come down to tell me what a nice distraction it was to have something else to focus on while her child was in surgery. Wendy Threatt – Children’s Hospital of Atlanta
The program offers a small escape for the patients inside our hospital, offering the opportunity for them to learn about sea life in a fun and informative environment. We can see the benefit among our patients. They are so intrigued in learning about the difference between seals and sea lions and how the PMMC team rehabilitates their animals. A lot of the patients can relate to the therapies and procedures the animals go through, as some are receiving a similar kind of care at our children’s hospital. Luke Morand – Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Pacific Marine Mammal Center offered 60 programs that reached 23,258 children in 2020 and looks forward to offering even more in 2021. Kirsten Donald, Director of Education says ‘Healing Seals is one of several free community programs that we offer to underserved audiences. We are grateful to have the opportunity to share the stories of our recovered patients with young children undergoing treatment for their own health issues. We feel that witnessing the animals’ journey through rehabilitation and return to a normal life at sea provides a sense of hope and inspiration that the children can draw upon to support their own recovery process. It is the least we can do and through it we champion 3 things: marine mammals, the planet and people. It doesn’t get much better than that!’
Writer Credit and Photo Credit:
PMMC & Children’s Health Hospital, Dallax, TX