Hospital Charity Organisation | Children's Hospital Trust

Having a sick child can be extremely traumatic for a parent or caregiver. The Hospital’s new Family Resource Centre (FRC) will provide families of patients at the Hospital access to vital moral and psychological support from well-trained staff in pleasant, stress-free surroundings. This haven will also be a rich information source whose benefits will extend further than just the Hospital as outpatient health-related activities and community programmes will also be on offer.

Built in the old trauma unit, these new facilities include a Transit lounge with a play area where parents with their children can wait in comfort for their transport and receive nutritional and toiletry support if necessary. Services on offer include the hosting of family support and counselling, a health information resource library, a spiritual sanctuary and educational programmes.

This central meeting place will be of vital support to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and also provide a new home for the Friends of the Children’s Hospital Association. For the last 30 years the Friends have provided a family-centred care and support system to parents and patients. Not only managing volunteer programmes, but also the day-to-day well-being of the patients and related home-care programmes. As Nazrina Teladia Director of the Friends of the Children’s Hospital Association says, “The Family Resource Centre acknowledges the potential trauma experienced by a child and their family during hospitalisation and the impact this may have on the entire family unit. With parents or guardians fully informed they can be an active participant in the management of their children’s conditions.”

Nazrina adds that, “The Family Resource Centre, the first of its kind to be connected to a tertiary hospital, will combine all the scattered areas of the Friends’ operations creating a centralised, user friendly, professional unit accessible to the  Hospital and used for information dissemination across all departments and wards.”

“As the Fundraising Arm of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital Trust has been honoured to fundraise just over R3million to build the first ever Family Resource Centre,” says Nicky Bishop CEO of the Children’s Hospital Trust. “Special thanks to Amanda Bloch, the Trust’s Patron, Linda Givon, founder of the Goodman Gallery and Dr Christo Wiese for helping to make this dream a reality. The Trust is most grateful to the generosity of all our donors and look forward to their ongoing support so that the Trust can continue to assist the Hospital with critical priority projects.”

“The FRC will encourage effective and relevant information exchange among all those responsible in the process of the healing of patient; and will provide the effective provision of auxiliary services to those offered by the Hospital. These services result in the continuity of hospital care, because, ultimately, parents who are more knowledgeable will be more equipped to manage the homecare of their sick child, thus reducing the reliance upon the Hospital,” says Dr Tommy Blake Senior Medical Superintendent at the Hospital. “The Family Resource Centre will therefore have a positive impact on the Hospital, the patients and their families and the community.”