Tucson business leader Jeremy Sharpe is leading the Banner Health Foundation’s effort to build a Play Zone at Diamond Children’s Medical Center in Tucson. Once completed, the bright, non-medical Play Zone will give hospitalized kids and teens a space away from their hospital rooms and medical care team to work with certified Child Life Specialists, whose therapeutic interventions are largely play-based—as this is how kids connect to the world around them and master their experiences.

Banner Health plans to open a center specializing in a reversible, yet often misdiagnosed, condition known as normal pressure hydrocephalus, thanks to a $5 million philanthropic gift to the Banner Health Foundation from Jerre and Mary Joy Stead. The center will be part of the Brain & Spine Institute at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix.

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The bright, non-medical Play Zone will provide a supportive environment that allows kids to ask questions and explore their emotions. Child Life specialists will work with them to build coping skills, decrease anxiety, address their psychosocial well-being, reduce trauma, and prepare for procedures and treatments.