One year old and growing fast!
On Saturday 22nd May the Drop In Centre celebrated its first birthday in great style with many past visitors returning to join our staff and volunteers in cutting and eating a wonderful cake. And it didn't stop there…celebrations continued all week with staff and several patients joining in marking the fantastic work of the Drop In Centre.
Since opening over 300 families have visited the Centre, which is funded by the Sick Kids Friends Foundation with support from Big Lottery. At the Centre children with long term conditions and their families have been able to access support and advice from Helen Taylor, our manager and her team as well as free complimentary therapies, consultations with the SNIP team and lots of activities for the children. Evening activity sessions for teenagers have been particularly popular with the Centre regularly busy with half a dozen youngsters often along with their siblings and parents enjoying a relaxing time away from the wards. Our volunteers accompany patients down to the Centre from the wards and then provide a wide variety of activities including arts and crafts, games, internet access and even Hula Hoop competitions. In response to one of our young visitors we purchased a Wii system for the Activity Room at Christmas and it has proved immensely popular; there are also therapeutic benefits to this equipment as it keeps children moving their arms and upper bodies, which is good for those who may have had long spells of inactivity!
There have also been other hidden benefits to the Centre along the way. We have had one patient who was sitting Highers and has spent time in the Activity Room on quieter days revising in a more peaceful atmosphere that she could experience on the wards and sometimes our regular patients have asked if they could meet their school friends in the Drop In Centre when they come to visit rather than in the wards….it's just like home, they all have a cup of coffee with the staff in the lounge then disappear off into the Activity Room for a bit of privacy. Everyone agrees that it is so much better and more normal than having such visits in the wards.
And the Centre is growing……..we have appointed two new Support Workers so that we can expand the opening hours to cover extra openings on Monday evenings and also at the weekends. We held a couple of pilot openings at the weekend and it was obvious that they were very popular providing some much needed relaxation from the ward regime at the weekend. Saturdays and Sundays can seem so long in the hospital as it is usually a time when families and young people get together or spend time with friends and do things like go to the cinema. As from July we are providing activity sessions and film afternoons at the Drop In Centre to while away the weekend hours!
Christopher Patterson, who is 12 years old has acute myoblastic leukaemia. He and his family live in Perthshire and Christopher is being cared for by the Oncology team based here at the hospital. Recently Christopher had to spend time at the hospital and his Mum and Dad, Tracey and John both visited the Drop In Centre when they were here. They both found it an absolute boon, enjoying the benefits of the Complementary Therapies as well as the support which the team provided, and now when Christopher, who loved the Young People's Activities, comes back to the hospital for regular appointments, they come back to the Centre as well.
