Non-verbal storytelling

The Beads of Courage program is a resilience-based intervention designed to facilitate storytelling in a non-verbal way. Patients receive a set of beads and a string. Each bead on the strings represents a part of the medical journey. For example, a "bumpy" bead is for a difficult time with medication, a glow in the dark bead for a session of radiation, a star bead for surgery, etc. The beads help the child tell his or her own story in visual and tactile ways.

Pierre fell in love with the program at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. When hospitalized at Mission Bay in San Francisco for treatment, he discovered the Beads of Courage program was not available there. PBF has brought Beads of Courage to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco - Mission Bay and fully funds the program. We hope to introduce it to more Bay Area Hospitals soon.