Wanted: Playtime volunteers for Children’s Hospital in Tallaght

By Mary Dennehy

A NEW voluntary play service for the young patients of the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght, has been running for the past 10 months, with new volunteers now needed to enhance and grow the service for sick kids and their families.

Living in Balrothery, Ronan Murphy is a volunteer with one of the country’s oldest registered children’s charities, Children in Hospital Ireland (CHI), which provides a voluntary play relief service for children in hospitals nationwide.

Currently, the six-person team of volunteers assigned to the Children’s Hospital in Tallaght covers two-hour play sessions, three nights a week.

However, the charity is hoping to encourage more volunteers from the locality to come on board and expand play time to six nights a week.

Ronan told The Echo: “We provide light play relief to kids in what is a really stressful environment such as playing board games, colouring and drawing and sometimes just general chatting which takes their mind of things.

“We currently provide the service three nights a week from 7pm to 9pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but would love to do more.”

He added: “I am the only volunteer in our group who is from Tallaght, with the rest of the team travelling in from other areas.

“Tallaght and its neighbouring communities have a great reputation for volunteering and I firmly believe that if people living locally knew about the service, we would have more people coming on board – it’s just two hours per week.

“To date, the service has been really well received by the hospital and its young patients.

“When the kids see us in our red tee-shirts they know they’re going to have fun and you can really see the difference the playtime has on them.

“It’s also great for the parents as it gives them a break to grab a cup of tea or a sandwich – and for volunteers, it’s a great way to give back and learn new skills.”

The team also spends time in the paediatrics emergency department where they set up a play and colouring station and engage with children waiting to be seen and their brothers and sisters.

Volunteers, who are Garda-vetted and must be over 18, receive a full induction and ongoing support.

A number of training days, specifically looking for volunteers for Tallaght and Crumlin hospitals, are due to be held this April.

For further information visit www.childreninhospital.ie, email arlene@childreninhospital.ie or call Ronan Murphy on 0863505735.