What We Offer
All children, young people and families like and need regular breaks and a chance to have some time out and fun. Parents and carers of children with a life limiting condition also feel that an important part of being a family is to have regular and planned ‘short breaks’.
Sometimes this means a family having a break together and sometimes children and young people choose to have a break on their own to ‘chill out’ and meet new friends.
However, if a child has a health condition that will not get better and is also severely physically disabled, an environment is needed that provides the right sort of skill, expertise and social and emotional support.
Our unit includes:
- A Family Room
- Children’s Bedrooms – complete with TV, dvd and music system and shared ensuite bathrooms.
- Wet Play Area - for paints and clay.
- Teenage Room - with PC's, wide screen TV, DVD player, up to date games console systems
- Multi-Sensory Room
- Chill-Out Room
- Family Accommodation
- Music Room
- Landscaped Gardens – with external playground
We have arts, crafts and games for all ages, cooking, games consoles and computers.
We also accompany the children to many community-based activities in the surrounding area for example, bowling and trips to the cinema and various leisure centres.
As a 24/7 specialist service we have the added value of being able to clinically assess children during their regular short break stays. This enables us to contribute to (and at times take the lead in) managing a range of symptoms including epilepsy, pain and vomiting. During a stay we can take the opportunity to monitor and review the progress of for example, new feeding regimes, wheelchairs and physiotherapy programmes. Although we are not a hospital, we have the skills and experience to look after children during times of illness when they are using our short break service.