Impact of a wish
Granting the dearest wish of a seriously ill child has a real impact on their medical journey and well-being, but also on family relationships and relations with those around them. A wish is therefore a real therapeutic tool. At the initiative of Make-A-Wish and in order to demonstrate the relevance of its mission, various studies have been conducted in different countries.
In the United States, a study conducted in 2010 had already defined the impact of wishes on children and their families. This research provided quantitative measures of the breadth and depth of the impact of Make-A-Wish's mission. Previously, the impact of a wish was mainly confirmed by occasional testimonies from families and doctors. Subsequently, real scientific studies were able to strengthen the hypotheses. The impact of the wish is not limited to the immediate emotional effects on children, but also greatly improves the quality of life of children and their families, promoting their resilience and increasing their well-being.
In 2022, this research was expanded to include a much larger population of Make-A-Wish children and parents, in addition to healthcare professionals. Today, a vast majority of former Make-A-Wish children, parents, and healthcare providers agree that the wish experience contributes in fundamental ways to physical, mental, and emotional health:
- A wish is an important part of medical treatment because it improves the chances of survival, provides necessary support to overcome this ordeal and gives the child a better chance of psychologically recovering from their serious illness.
- A wish brings more hope, strength, joy, confidence, self-esteem, quality of life and well-being to the child affected in his health.
- A wish can correspond to a stage of a treatment or can celebrate its success.
- A wish brings family members closer together and strengthens relationships with loved ones.
- A wish helps overcome traumatic stress, hopelessness, depression and loneliness.
This recent study was conducted online between October and November 2021 among 3 children and adults over the age of 369, including 18 former beneficiaries and 348 parents of beneficiaries. The respondents were representative of wishes granted between 3 and 021. In addition, a complementary survey was conducted among 2009 health professionals.
"The great joy before and after, the letting go and the excitement during the realization of the wish and the laughter found again act favorably on the different functions of the body. My work and my experience as a pediatrician, show me that traditional medicine benefits from these psychic "high altitude flights". The great advantage of this medicine - very effective - is that it has no side effects."