Welcome to Defender Profiles. Here you’ll learn about one of our amazing defenders of childhood – everything from what they do for CHOC to what they do for fun – and gain insight into a different department in our health system.
A former diesel mechanic, Eric Mammen went back to school to study music because he knew he wanted to pursue a career in music and pediatrics. Joining CHOC as a part-time employee who started the music therapy program, now 15 years later, he’s the creative arts supervisor for the Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Department at CHOC.
How long have you worked at CHOC?
I have worked at CHOC for 15 years.
Can you describe your current role?
Currently, I’m the creative arts supervisor for The Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Department. I divide my time about by 60% administrative and 40% seeing patients. I help oversee Seacrest Studios, art therapy, music therapy, special programs, our Adolescent Young Adult (AYA) Program and the music therapy internship program.
What do you love about your current role?
What I love about my current role is the diversity: being able to work with patients and families from toddlers up to 26-year-olds and all the different ages, different cultural backgrounds, different diagnoses. I love the wide range of experiences and services I’m able to provide to our patients.
What do you love about working at CHOC?
I love the common goal that CHOC has. No matter if you are in marketing or child life, we are really here for the patients and families and we’re striving to make their experience as positive as possible. We work in what can be a very challenging place, but we’re focusing on the children and their families to help them have a normative experience here.
There’s so much more that goes into child life, music therapy and art therapy than just having fun. We are facilitating interventions that are intentional and with a medical purpose. We are working towards meeting medical or emotional goals and we are really trying to help these patients and families with these goals.
Eric Mammen, CHOC creative arts supervisor
How has your role changed due to the pandemic?
During the pandemic, we had to transition into opening an essential daycare in the hospital’s conference center on a weekend’s notice. We found out on Friday, March 13, 2020, that we needed to open a daycare for all the essential workers. By Tuesday of the next week, we had a fully functioning daycare open and started accepting the children of doctors, nurses and support staff who were here because all the schools had closed. We had infants up to about 14-year-olds all together in the conference center from 5 a.m. to midnight daily.
How has CHOC changed and progressed in your time here?
Well, not only has the technology changed but so have the buildings. When I first started here, the Bill Holmes Tower wasn’t here. To see the forward thinking and the vision of CHOC’s leadership and the Board of Directors to make CHOC a great hospital for Orange County has been amazing. And now the thought around bringing CHOC into the community and how can we reach patients and families where they’re at is wonderful. I mean, we were using pagers back when I started.
What do you wish employees and the public knew about The Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life department at CHOC?
I wish employees knew that, yes, while we do provide fun and special activities, we are also in almost every type of bereavement and in end-of-life care. We are also there for the patients and families for procedural support. There’s so much more that goes into child life, music therapy and art therapy than just having fun. We are facilitating interventions that are intentional and with a medical purpose. We are working towards meeting medical or emotional goals and we are really trying to help these patients and families with these goals. We don’t just run around with iPads and guitars, but we are actively part of the interdisciplinary team. I think the majority of people know that, especially those on our units as they see what we’re doing. We hear all the time that our jobs must be so fun and, while that’s true, we are still part of the medical staff and we are still dealing with hard issues as well.
What do you feel makes someone a great Defender of Childhood?
I think someone makes a great Defender of Childhood if they’re willing to be a child themselves – to tap into that inner child to not take themselves so seriously, to be able to let down their guard and just experience a child for who they are. I love children because they’ll tell you there’s something on your face and will tell you exactly what they’re thinking and feeling. I think as adults, we learn social norms and we are more guarded in a lot of ways.
What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
I love to be outside. I think maybe it’s because I’m inside so much. I love just being outdoors, going on walks and listening to music. I was born and raised in Southern California, so I love going to the beach and going Boogie Boarding. I also like riding bikes, exercising and just being active.
Do you have a favorite artist that you listen to?
That is the hardest question because I match my music to what I’m doing. If I’m cleaning, I have upbeat music. If I’m chilling in the backyard at a barbecue, I might have on Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews. If I’m working out, I might be listening to electronic dance music. I really just use music to help me get to the space I’m trying to get to.
What is one thing on your bucket list?
One thing on my bucket list would be to spend a couple of weeks at my friend’s home in Italy. He lives in southern Italy in Naples. He says no one knows English. So, I think in a year or two, I would love to be able to just spend a couple of weeks at his place in Italy. I love traveling. I have two kids and so traveling isn’t necessarily always what we get to do, but I’m thinking that could be something economical if we were just couch surfing at his place and then experiencing Italy for what it really is.
