Are You Sitting Comfortably?
Are You Sitting Comfortably was the title of our Christmas Appeal this year. We've drawn up a 'Santa List' with help from staff, patients and parents and, over this Christmas and the early part of the New Year, we plan be able to raise lots of funds to help people to sit comfortably in wards, the Sitting Room, the Sanctuary, wheelchairs, in the Sensory gardens, on trolleys and in Waiting Rooms.
Are you sitting Comfortably? We're asking our supporters to make sure that all our patients and their parents can answer 'Yes, thanks to you!!'
Our latest appeal covers wheelchairs, garden benches, comfortable chairs in the wards, play and relaxation equipment for children in X-ray department and refurbishing our Family Sitting Room and the Chapel.
Some months ago we were approached by the Occupational Therapists based at Graysmill school who asked if we would be prepared to support the purchase of a very special SMART wheelchair for the school. The Sick Kids Friends Foundation was established to make extra provision at the hospital, but we interpret that to also mean that we should help our patients wherever they need help. Elsewhere in this newsletter you will read about our help with the Sensory Gardens at Calareidh and Sunndach.
'When I spoke to the therapists they told me that this chair would give the chance for children who would not be able to use a normal power chair to experience control of their own movement,' Maureen Harrison told us. 'It is a very safe chair which can be operated in a variety of ways depending on the child's mobility and ability.'
The chair has extra large pressure switches for the children to operate and can be set to go at a safe speed and only a short distance at a time, so that accidents can be avoided. If the chair comes up against an object, it stops! It is also possible to use the chair on a laid out track, so that children do not have to worry about direction!
We spoke to Hamish Fraser's Mum, Cally. Hamish is a patient from the hospital and also goes to Calareidh for respite care from time to time. I was so delighted when I walked in to the nursery and saw Hamish in the chair. He was beaming from ear to ear as he knew that he had made himself move and he was just thrilled. He loves being in the chair and being able to get around a little bit as just like any other child being in control is important to him'
The Occupational Therapists were delighted with the chair and are now trying some other adaptations to go with it to permit its use by children of differing ages and sizes. Now that they have had time to assess the usefulness and potential use of the chair, they have asked us to provide one for Oaklands too. Although the chair costs £10,000, it will give so much joy and independence to so many children that we were delighted to consider a further purchase. We couldn't have done it without you, so thank you very much to everyone who donated funds for this project and in particular to schools who fundraised for it!
And thinking of sitting comfortably, staff from the wards mentioned that the chairs by the beds were not very good for parents to sit on for a long time. They tended to become very uncomfortable. Last year one of the wards raised some money and tried out some different chairs and they have proved really popular so we have agreed that one of our Christmas wishes will be to replace all the chairs beside the beds, so that when parents spend anxious hours keeping watch day and night at least they can be comfortable.
Waiting for an X-ray or other form of scanning is pretty nerve racking for any youngster and having the procedure done it can be pretty difficult for younger children to keep still! Much better if there is plenty to distract and amuse the children as they wait in our Radiology department. Our X-ray staff were really excited to get hold of all our catalogues and have found lots of toys, relaxation equipment and activity centres which will keep little minds and hands busy and stop them becoming bored or fearful. We want to buy a wide range of items from little tambourines to jumping frogs, from blackboards to table football to cover all ages and all sorts of interests.
Elsewhere on this website you will read all about the Sensory Gardens at Calareidh and Sunndach, but we would like people to sit comfortably there too. So we plan, with your help to buy some benches for children and parents to sit on in the lovely gardens. A Sensory Garden is a particularly peaceful and relaxing place, which parents of our residential children will be able to share with them and enjoy the smells, sounds and feel of the plants in the garden.
It is vital that there are places in the hospital where parents can actually get away from the busy wards, where it often seems that there's constant activity. Sometimes parents just need to be somewhere else, somewhere where they can think clearly, relax and even switch off for a short while to recharge their batteries. There are two areas like that in the hospital created by the Friends Foundation...the family Sitting Room and the Chapel. We would like to redecorate both of them and change them round to suit the needs which parents have outlined to us. We would like both areas to be welcoming, warm and friendly for everyone and to look fresh and clean. As they are such busy areas, we need to refurbish them more regularly than other parts of the hospital and our plan is that the hundreds of people who use the Sitting Room every week will benefit from the improvements to furniture and décor we plan.
For further information, and to hear about our ongoing work and funding commitments please contact the Sick Kids Friends Foundation on 0131 668 4949
