Play therapist

I have found out that hospitals have play therapist that pacifically deal with helping children with play be it with drama, football, music etc. Possible the game that i create could be used in these sessions to help children with problerms they maybe having.

The team of Hospital Play Specialists at The Children’s Trust are responsible for assessing the play and leisure needs of each child and then devising a specific programme tailored to meet that child’s emotional, social and developmental needs.

Children access individual play sessions with goals such as:

• the reduction of pre and post-procedural anxiety, for example in relation to injections, hospital visits etc;
• the provision of an emotional outlet for feelings of anger or frustration;
• the achievement of developmental goals and the regaining of skills and confidence that have been lost due to illness, injury and hospitalisation;
• distraction play, alongside medical and therapy sessions, such as the giving of injections or physiotherapy.

Hospital Play Specialists also organise group sessions to enable the children to experience social play such as:

• football skills;
• story clubs;
• drama;
• music.

A comprehensive outings programme is organised ny the Leisure and Activities Coordinator to enable children to maintain contact with the local community and reduce possible institutional effects that are part of a residential programme. The Hospital Play Specialists also support school sessions where appropriate and a holiday club during school holidays.

The team of Hospital Play Specialists is line-managed and supervised by the Play Therapist.

The Hospital Play Specialists are very much part of the therapeutic team. They aim to support children so they are motivated and energised to work hard in therapy sessions by supporting their emotional needs. They also provide support to the nursing and care team.

Play Therapy promotes resilience by helping children to explore their feelings, to express themselves and to make sense of their life experiences. Play is children’s natural medium for learning, communicating and exploring their worlds. Emotional recovery from distressing life experiences can thus be facilitated by a Play Therapist allowing a child to express themselves via play in a safe, secure and trusting environment.

Conventional talking therapies may be inappropriate for children and young people who struggle to put their feelings into words. Play Therapy allows them the opportunity to explore and understand these feelings and can enable them to shift their perspective so they are less likely to internalise blame. The resulting empowerment and increased self-esteem can be the springboard to help the child to cope more effectively with their difficulties.

What to take to hospital

I decided to research what children had to take to hospital if they have to stay over night. It mentions that they can bring their own toys but these may not be suitable for use inside the hospital. And they would not beable to create play between other children or their parents so it still could be lonley playing on their own.

We understand that coming into hospital can be daunting experience for children*. It can also be an equally worrying time for you, as a parent. Therefore, we try and make the visit as comfortable and convenient as possible.

You have the option of staying with your child. If you are unable to do so, our dedicated team of nurses will be fully aware of your child's needs, so you can have complete peace of mind and confidence.

Most Nuffield Hospitals have satellite TV and a selection of books, games and videos for entertainment, but if your child prefers they can bring their own toys.

It is recommended that you pack the following for your child's stay in hospital:

• Any medication your child is taking (please give to the nurse in charge on arrival)
• Nightwear, dressing gown and slippers
• Toiletries
• Day clothes
• Shoes (if staying more than three days)
• Favourite teddy bear, activity toys or comfort blanket
• Cup, feeder, bottle or cutlery
• If you are staying with your child, bring your own nightwear and toiletries

To help you prepare for the stay and make the hospital a familiar place for your child, contact us and we will be more than happy to arrange a suitable time for you to visit the hospital in advance.

Contact your local hospital to find out more. Click here to search for your local hospital.

*Please be aware that not all hospitals have the facilities to provide services and treatment for children, we recommend you contact your local Nuffield Hospital if you have any questions or would like to further information.

Lolly pop kids

I think this a brilliant idea and i may use aspects of it in my work. They use the radio (including prizes and request from the children in the show) to make a more friendly and playful atmosphere at the hospital it also includes volunteers for persifvic hospitals so that the child get used to and trust the same people. I could use the idea of talking and making nosies for my game as so patients may not be able to move very well.

Lolly pop kids

Enjoy spending time with kids

The Radio Lollipop team of volunteers makes a positive difference in the lives of children. All receive full training and work closely with nursing and medical staff and hospital administrative staff to create fun, friendship and support for each individual patient.

Each Radio Lollipop station has its own team members who run the radio station, involve children in play activities and use the sounds of radio to stimulate the children´s imaginations. If you are over 18 years of age and would enjoy spending two hours a week with kids you can be a Radio Lollipop volunteer.

A stimulating mix of music and participation games is broadcast in children´s wards and rooms. Volunteers work at the bedside, playing games and co-ordinating art projects and contests in which all the sick children have the chance to win prizes.

Through play, a child can find security and stability. Experience has shown that a happy motivated child can respond faster to treatment.

The Healing Power of Play

Radio Lollipop believes in the healing power of play - providing smiles and laughter to children at a time when they need it most.

One in four children are admitted to a hospital before reaching age 14. Though some patients are short-stay, many have a recurring need for care and return repeatedly to hospital. Some who are terminally ill spend much of their short lives in hospital.

Radio Lollipop gives young patients a voice and a choice during their stay. While they can´t say "no" to taking their medicine or receiving treatment, they can request their favourite songs, win prizes and hear their own voices on the radio. Those activities give youngsters a haven of normality in the hospital day which in other respects is strange, different and often scary.

childhood experience of hospital (my thoughts)

Play would be great for helping with this problem making it a better and happier experience for a child who has to be in hosptial. i feel it would be help them deal with pain discomfort and being seperated from their parents. I feel that a card game would be good for this that may invole something to do with staying at hospitals and their illness, that maybe to difficult for the illness as there are so many different types of illness so would not beable to do a default game as this may confuse the child.

A Childhood Experience of Hospital

A Childhood Experience of Hospital

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 by Sir William Utting

Illness disrupted my childhood in 1934, when I was three. Acute stomach pains were initially diagnosed as colic. The pain became so intense that my parents had to carry me to bed on a board because my body could not tolerate bending. I was eventually admitted to hospital and remember being held down by masked nurses while an anaesthetic was administered – a terrifying experience. I also thought that this was part of the process of dying. I had heard much about death as a small child. My parents were of the generation that became familiar with death during the Great War of 1914-18, and my aunts often whispered about friends afflicted by cancer.

The surgeon’s exploratory operation revealed a ruptured appendix and the onset of peritonitis. Appendicitis was then more difficult to diagnose and treat than it is now, and was often fatal when peritonitis had set in. I was fortunate to survive, and have since had a sense of being allowed a second chance at life. My mother was pleased to attribute my survival to a nurse’s comment about the quality of her care for me.

I spent a long month in hospital, not knowing when – or whether – I might go home, in pain or discomfort for much of the time, lonely, isolated and depressed. One memorable incident was the removal of the stitches from my large stomach wound. The flesh had healed around them so well that taking them out caused both pain and an associated sensation of tugging within my body. I discovered in later life a tendency to go into shock at the sensation of an instrument moving inside me, which I attribute to this early experience.

I became so depressed that I was unable to call for help one day when I had been placed in a chair so close to an electric fire that my grey hospital dressing-gown began to scorch. Much of the problem sprang from the hospital policy, universal at the time, of not allowing parents to visit, presumably on the grounds that the children became upset when they left. In addition to experiencing physical pain and discomfort, I was also deprived of the love and presence of my parents. They were allowed to stand at the ward doors and look at me through their porthole windows. I sometimes feel that I stand behind them viewing the tiny child that I was, seated in a large chair.

I left hospital with a long scar at the right side of my stomach, with stitching on both sides that grew in adult life to resemble the legs of an enormous insect. The scar is roughened and enlarged at the base, where the wound was drained because of an abscess. The psychological scars are equally enduring. Photographs taken before and after the operation show a sturdy, fair-haired boy changed into a pinch-faced waif apparently absorbed in tormenting inner thoughts. I suffered night terrors for several years, with one particular recurring death dream. I became a compulsive nail-biter. Well into adult life the old-fashioned disinfectant smell of hospitals reawakened my childhood anxiety to the extent, occasionally, of disorientation. I still take care to explain to doctors that I was traumatised by childhood surgery in case the terrified three-year-old inside me reacts badly to a simple procedure.

Of course, what happened to me hardly compares with the years some of my contemporaries spent in hospitals for the treatment of orthopaedic problems or tuberculosis, or with the institutional experiences of profoundly disabled children such as my late friends Margaret and Jack Wymer.

John Vaizey, in Scenes from Institutional Life, gives a moving account of the impersonal cruelty of such regimes, and of the apparent indifference and occasional sadism of some of the staff. I can only admire the courage and steadfastness of those who survived such experiences.

Sir William Utting was Chief Inspector of Social Services. Among many other distinguished roles, he served on the Nolan Committee and was author of People Like Us.