Within our hospices across Scotland we have always been very child-centred and always focus on and discuss what matters to the children and their families on every visit – by Eilidh Grant
Before their visit we ask children and families what they would like to do during their stay with us. Based on these discussions, we make up ‘CHASbook’ forms for each of our children so that we know what is important to them and what matters to them. This allows us to continue to mould ourselves to the kids and tailor their stays with us based on what matters to them.
We took the opportunity on ‘What matters to you?’ day to learn even more about the children staying with us and arranged various activities such as:
finding out people’s favourite foods and made sure these were available on ‘What matters to you?’ day
a tree in the reception area so people could add a tag to it to say what matters to them
discussing what songs or music matters to everyone, and
asking everyone in the house to write their names in a vertical line and then think of something that matters to them starting with each letter of their name. By taking this approach, it really made people think about what matters to them instead of saying the same as everyone else. It was good fun and all staff, volunteers, families and children joined in.
By holding these activities, it made us more aware of things that were important to the kids so that we can continue to build this into their time with us in the hospice.