8 February 2022
Supporting children through mental health
Mental health relates to many complex conditions, so during children’s mental health week, we want to highlight how the Charity is supporting patients in Southampton Children’s Hospital.
We are fortunate to have a dedicated Children’s mental health team who support children and adolescents experiencing mental health difficulties. This includes low mood, anxiety, eating disorders, adjustment to acute and chronic medical conditions, and behavioural difficulties.
Joyce Stebbings, Youth and Play Services Manager, says: “When a child or young person is admitted to hospital and presents in a mental health crisis, we try to provide them with activities or packs to try and make it a little easier.
We are very thankful to Sedona’s Care Packages for donating these packs for use with our children and young people. Using additional funding from Southampton Hospitals Charity, we can then add to these depending on their age and condition including fidget/poppet toys, Uno, etc.
We have found that playing cards and games like Uno are invaluable. The games allow the children/ young people at that moment to feel more at ease with themselves as the focus is on something else giving them the opportunity to engage where they may previously be unable.
One young person shared that being asked questions one to one was very daunting, but by playing a game at the same time, they are so focussed on playing the cards that when you ask them questions, the answers just come naturally.”
This children’s mental health week, support Southampton Children’s Hospital today or support the Youth and Play Services Team directly through our Amazon wishlist.
Sedona’s care packages
Sedona is a past patient of Southampton Children’s Hospital who spent a large chunk of her teenage years on our wards due to a mental health illness. She’s now 20, in recovery, and the creator of Sedona’s Care Packages.
Sedona’s Care Packages provides care packages for mental health patients in paediatric wards in Hampshire.
Sedona said, “As someone who spent their teenage years in the position of a patient on paediatrics due to mental illness, I have set this up in order to bring a little brightness to those struggling, and to give something back to the wards that have helped me so much.”
Sedona’s care packages are now distributed to the young mental health patients on our wards and in our Emergency Department.