The Archie Foundation works in partnership with the Play Teams in Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, Highland Children’s Unit, Tayside Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Grays. Play is much more than playing games with patients and arts and crafts. It involves creating tailored activities for each child, that can help with distraction, comfort, and company and it also allows worried parents to take time to care for themselves, grab a quick coffee or a short nap, helping them to stay strong for their child.
In Grampian, we fund a member of the Play Team – the Archie Play Worker, Orla!
We also fund The Archie Toy Box, or in fact many Archie Toy Boxes! These boxes are filled with toys and other resources for young patients at wards and clinics right across North Scotland. They include arts & crafts materials, colouring books, board games, books, and small toys that are suitable for children of all abilities.
Play staff choose age and stage appropriate toys and activities for the Toy Boxes, using them for distraction and entertainment, to help children understand what their treatment will involve, and also as a reward for bravery in difficult appointments or procedures. We also recently introduced specialist toy boxes which contain braille books and games and other inclusive and accessible resources.
We fund regular Art and Music activities on the wards, provided by external specialists and we work with the Play Teams to invite and welcome exciting VIP guests in whenever possible.
Last year at RACH we had the pleasure of welcoming A.F.C players, the pantomime cast, a tennis lesson with Judy Murray, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service and lots more as part of our annual Christmas Advent calendar of daily surprises.
We are proud to support the Allied Health Professional teams working across our three regions. The AHP healthcare service includes Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Health Therapy, Physiotherapy and more.
Archie provides resources to help these teams deliver services in our communities and our AHP colleagues in turn play a key role in raising awareness among the public of the wider range of services offered by the charity. Our steady supply of toys and other resources from the Archie Toy Service assists our NHS colleagues in conducting assessments and therapy sessions in rural communities.