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Status
Received: on time
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Income
£243.9K
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Spending
£226.5K
Public benefits
Helping Hand is open to all the wards and departments within the Royal Belfast for Sick Children, the Regional Hospital for all of the children of Northern Ireland, to apply for funding for equipment or services that fall outside normal Trust budgets. This can be anything from decorations and toys generally helping to create a child friendly
environment through to keeping up with the galloping pace of technology in surgical/ medical equipment. The support that Helping Hand provides benefits:- 1.Children attending the hospital from all over N.Ireland, both outpatient and inpatient 2.Parents 3.Staff within the hospital 4.Community services/Satellite centres used by the Children’s Hospital for the assessment and treatment of children connected to the hospital. Funding of play equipment ensures the children attending the hospital are in a child friendly environment, their anxiety attending the hospital can be as stress free and as comfortable as is possible. Time in hospital can be very long and the provision of toys, iPads, DVD’s etc can provide some entertainment and distractions in an otherwise alien environment. Provision of specialised medical/ equipment ensures our children attending the hospital are diagnosed and treated with the most up to date technically advanced equipment - now essential for the health and wellbeing of our children. Parents are reassured that the hospital’s access to the best equipment necessary for the treatment of their children. Sleep chairs purchased by the charity have been of direct benefit of the parents. These chairs have allowed parents to stay close to their child overnight while allowing the parent to get some rest. Staff within the hospital are aware that they can request items/ equipment to be funded by the charity ensuring that they have the confidence in knowing that they can access to the best equipment required for the safe and beneficial care of their patients. Funding of research and supporting the education of staff allows knowledge to be current. Helping Hand recently funded the equipment for a Simulation Room used to educate the next generation of doctors and nurses. This room uses dummy patients that can be programmed to replicate a variety of symptoms and the students response is recorded. This is a valuable tool in the ongoing education process. The RBHSC was one of the pioneers of Laparoscopic(keyhole) surgery this has helped reduce stress and recovery times for patients. This equipment was purchased by Helping Hand. The benefits of equipment and items funded through Helping Hand are observed by staff and parents and verbally reported to Helping Hand. Letters of thanks from parents, family and friends with offers to fundraise for the charity reflects the support generated from experiencing the benefits of the involvement of Helping Hand within the hospital. DITTO Tablets purchased by Helping Hand- an animated programme which explains up to 30 different medical procedures is now used by the play department at out patient clinics. This is educational, calming and reassuring for the children and as a result an increased number of children can be seen and treated during a clinic. Toys are used as district tools during unpleasant procedures. Recently funded beds and cots for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and several other wards allow improved and safe examination of patients and better manoeuvrability of the children benefiting both children and staff. Helping Hand funds such a variety of projects within the Children’s Hospital, benefits which can be measured by staff in relation to the treatment of the children and reported informally back to the charity. Others are measured by the children in how they respond to the environment which we attempt to make as pleasant as possible under difficult and stressful circumstances in which these families are subjected.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
How we support the hospital Helping Hand is open to all the wards and departments within The Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children to apply for funding for any equipment or services that fall outside normal trust budgets. This can be anything from Christmas decorations and generally making a child friendly environment through to keeping up with
the galloping pace of technology in surgical equipment.
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of health or the saving of lives
- The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
Who the charity helps
- Adult training
- Children (5-13 year olds)
- Learning disabilities
- Parents
- Physical disabilities
- Preschool (0-5 year olds)
- Sensory disabilities
- Youth (14-25 year olds)
How the charity works
- Disability
- Education/training
- General charitable purposes
- Medical/health/sickness
- Research/evaluation
