France: Tête en l'Air

Assisting the families

In France, 4,500 children undergo neurosurgery every year, 1,200 of them at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, which has Europe’s largest pediatric neurosurgery department.

When a child has a brain injury, it affects the entire family, which has to learn to live with the after-effects of the injury: impaired memory, psycho-motor disorders, behavioral problems… all of these cognitive after-effects interfere with the child’s learning process.

The parents, who are in a state of shock at the hospital, often don’t take the time to get all the information they need. The “Tête en l’air” association helps in several ways:

• A help line, available 24/7
• An 80-page information guide
• Information meetings for the families
• A 16-page bi-annual newsletter printed in 1,000 copies
• A website

A welcoming atmosphere for discussion

With the Foundation’s support, the frequency of the morning information meetings doubled to once a week, not including school vacations, for a total of 36 meetings a year. The meetings are held in the neurosurgery department of Necker Hospital. In the past year, 584 people attended the meetings, including 77 from the hospital itself and 507 directly affected by the hospitalization of a child.

The families look forward to the meetings as an opportunity to talk, to get information and to “come up for air” at a particularly trying and painful time. There, they get moral support as well as practical information.

About four times a year, a psychologist provides training in counseling and in individual and group follow-up to volunteers. A full day of training is also part of the program.