Play With A Purpose

Hospital’s can be scary unfamiliar places for children. Anxiety can make it harder for children and their caregivers to cope and for health staff to properly diagnose illness.

In a bid to tackle the problem a new project will be launched tomorrow in Christchurch Hospital’s Children’s Acute Assessment Unit. From now on all children aged six months – six years old, who are admitted to Christchurch Hospital’s Children’s Acute Assessment Unit (CAAU), will be given a Play With A Purpose pack.

The brightly coloured packs contain four or five toys for children such as stressballs, playdough, bubble blowing toolkits, stickers and felt pens and a notepad. They also carry an information card for caregivers, explaining how to distract your child while they’re undergoing stressful situations in unfamiliar surroundings.

Play With A Purpose, which was trialled in the CAAU last year, has been adapted from a similar programme in Emerson Hospital, Massachusetts, USA. The trial was facilitated by Dorothy Lavelle, Team Leader of Hospital Play Specialist/Playroom, and Raewyn Millar, Staff Nurse Children’s Acute Assessment Unit.

Dorothy Lavelle says they knew the pilot would be a success, however they didn’t realise how successful it would be. “It wasn’t just the kids and caregivers who loved the packs, it was the clinicians and nurses – they’ve been regularly asking us when will the packs make a come
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Both care-givers and staff were asked to fill out a survey. A surprising finding was an improvement in the relationship between the medical staff and the patient and their caregivers. Again, unexpectedly staff morale improved during the pilot. Another surprising outcome was that doctors used the items in the bag to assess the developmental age of some children.

Staff also found the packs allowed them an opportunity to talk to caregivers about the importance of playing, especially about the use of toys to distract and assist children dealing with unfamiliar procedures.

Overall there has been a significant reduction in anxiety for caregivers and children. This is known to lead to clearer reporting on the history of the illness allowing for a more accurate diagnosis to occur, and to a more compliant patient. All of this is good news for the patient.

The findings have been presented at conferences both in Christchurch and in Auckland and there’s considerable interest from other hospitals. Hillmorton Hospital is considering introducing the programme in a bid to help the children of patients.

Next year it is hoped to extend the age range to include 7 to 10 year olds. Raewyn Millar would like to see the scheme extended. “It would be great if eventually all children admitted to Christchurch Hospital got a pack, however we’ve got to work on the logistics of that”.

In the next 12 months it’s expected up to 3,500 Play With A Purpose packs will be given out. Dorothy Lavelle says this would not be possible without the generosity of Countdown (major sponsor), Buddle Findlay, Friends of Children in Hospital and Christchurch Hospital Volunteers.

ENDS