March 22, 2018
Recognizing a need for content aimed at their peers, members of the Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre’s Child and Youth Advisory Council (CYAC), which is made up of young people with diverse hospital experience, worked in partnership with Upopolis – a social technology for kids and teens with long-term hospital experience – to create a new hospital video tour.
Hosted on the Kids’ Health Links Foundation channel, the video tour is led by two past members of the CYAC who walk viewers through different areas of the Children’s Hospital, providing helpful tips, interesting facts, and ideas about what to expect along the way. It’s a conversational and friendly approach that helps to prepare young people for an upcoming visit to the hospital.
While the video walks you through the different areas where patients receive care, it focuses primarily on the patient experience part of the journey versus the medical care one might encounter. It offers young people a view into the many different ways the hospital provides support beyond medical care – whether that is art therapy, music therapy, specially designed teen spaces or a multi-sensory room – and reminds youth that they have an important voice as a member of their care team.
“It was really important for the advisory council members that other young people coming to Children’s Hospital for the first time understood they would be welcomed as a whole person and not be defined by their condition needing to be treated,” says Clara Madrenas, Patient Experience Specialist, Children & Youth, at LHSC’s Children’s Hospital. “It was very inspiring to watch this group of young adults come together to create something they knew would resonate with their peers and something they felt they wished they had at the outset of their own diverse journeys.”
The video was made possible by a patient & family centred care grant from Children’s Health Foundation – a fundraising partner of Children’s Hospital and the many value-added programs and services.
If you, or someone you know, are coming to Children’s Hospital for care, please view and share this helpful new resource!
Where will the video tour take you?
The video tour leads viewers through the following areas of Children’s Hospital:
- Atrium
- Family Resource Centre
- Paediatric Medical Day Unit
- Children’s Emergency Department
- Children’s Inpatient Unit
