Scary clowns

A report in today's Scotsman reports that children in hospital find clowns scary. Those painted on the wall, that is. The University of Sheffield polled 250 children between 4 and 16 years of age and none of them liked clowns painted on walls.

Wow - even the oldest ones found them scary? I suppose clowns are not much part of today's life, when we don't have so many circuses, so children are not used to them. (I used to hate them in circuses because you'd get unexpected bangs; those drive me crazy even now). And those eyes looking at you.....

Why then are living clown doctors so successful? Or does this maybe gloss over the fact that not all children like them either?

It just shows how important it is to involve the users, or potential users of services, in service design. This is just about pictures on walls - what do the service users have to say about service delivery?

(In one recent hospital attendance, while I was waiting for a scary procedure, the staff turned on the radio loud in the waiting room, with pop music - maybe to help me relax. In another operating theatre the radio was running, with news and pop music. I can't abide pop music. In each case I asked for them to be turned off. It was my operation.....but what if the surgeon needs music while operating? Then whose operation is it?)

(Picture courtesy of the Humour Foundation)