Play teams are some of the most important people on a children’s ward, providing therapeutic support during procedures, fun, and normality for patients and their families. This is why the Cambridge Children’s Hospital vision of holistic care is underpinned by play.
This month Dr Denise Williams and Dr Kelsey Graber from the Cambridge Children’s Hospital team joined the Society of Health Play Specialists (opens in a new tab) conference to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary of representing the profession. They talked about what play will look like in the future children’s hospital, a key component of its holistic approach to care.
Due to open in 2030, the new facility will be the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England, the only region without one. It will be unique in fully integrating mental and physical healthcare together under one roof, alongside world-leading research.
Dr Denise Williams, one of the project’s clinical leads, said during her years working as a paediatric oncologist she’d seen first-hand the huge benefits play brings for young patients and their families. “It helps them understand procedures and feel less anxious, as well as providing fun and normality during long, stressful, and often boring days.”
At Cambridge Children’s Hospital, we want to ensure that a playful approach happens wherever you work in the hospital, right from the moment a child walks through the door. Play should be everyone’s business.
Dr Denise Williams, Cambridge Children’s Hospital clinical lead
Prior to joining the Cambridge Children’s Hospital team as a senior project manager, Dr Kelsey Graber led a University of Cambridge report for the charity Starlight (opens in a new tab) calling for play, games and playful approaches to be integrated into a ‘holistic’ model of children’s healthcare – one that acknowledges the emotional and psychological dimensions of good health, alongside its physical aspects.
Our research found that play is fundamental to childhood inside a hospital, just as it is to childhood outside of a hospital. Children are the experts of their own play!
Dr Kesley Graber, Senior Project Manager, Cambridge Children’s Hospital
Children and young people have been helping shape how Cambridge Children’s Hospital will look, feel and care. The theme of play has been a focal point, with members of the project’s Youth and Young Adult Forums also considering what play means for teenage patients. Play and creative arts are used in workshops and conversations to help participants express themselves.
- Playing with Children’s Health? A scoping review of recent literature on play and children’s health (opens in a new tab) by Kelsey Graber PhD, Paulina Pérez-Duarte Mendiola MSc, Kateryna Tyzhuk MPhil and Paul Ramchandani DPhil