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 health condition that is likely to lead to a shortened life expectancy 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 service includes:
- A Family Room – a spacious lounge complete with comfy sofas and TV.
- Children’s Bedrooms – complete with TV, video, mini hi-fi system and shared ensuite bathrooms.
- Playroom
- Wet Play Area - for paints and clay.
- Teenage Room - with a PC,DVD and CD player
- Multi-Sensory Room - for stimulation or relaxation.
- Chill-Out Room
- Large Kitchen Area
- Family Accommodation
- Landscaped Gardens – with external playground.
Children can enjoy the many facilities in our purpose built unit as well as in our playground outside. We have arts, crafts and games for all ages, a wet play area, cooking, DVDs, videos and computers. The computers are equipped with e-mail and Internet access.
We have an interactive sensory room and 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.
Families can recharge their batteries at St Oswald’s, as one Dad has said:
“I didn’t want to leave our daughter on her own overnight but thought that would be the only way we would get a break ... but it’s not like that ... we all went together and while the team looked after Susan she had a great time and we sat with our feet up!”
One young person told us:
“This is somewhere I can go by myself and go out with other people rather than doing everything with my parents. It’s hard to explain, but most people see all my problems and back off, not that I can blame them, but people at St Oswald’s can see through all of this and see me as a person and interact with me as thought I am normal.”