In Health, In Trauma, Play is essential.

Play is an essential component, it is instinctive and powerful- in the development of the whole child and must continue wherever possible in sickness and in ill health, trauma and both when there are long or short term issues.

It is critical and crucial in helping to support children and young people - to provide coping strategies and opportunities to explore, to find out

the mechanisms of why we each react differently to environments and procedures.

All members of the team whether that be in healthcare, support work, overseas volunteering are involved in the wrap around care elements of children and young people within health/aid settings they can utilise play and it's components.

Members of the Specialised Health Play Team hold enhanced responsibilities, experience and rich knowledge to share and promote essential skills.

Judy Walker shared with us that essential functions of play are built into the fabric of the child and young persons journey through the hospital and health experience.

Normalising Play is at the very centre of a child's world- to have it removed - to have been part of a traumatic experience or for play to be unobtainable means to deprive and remove the ability to explore, engage and experience.

Children and Young People accessing hospital and health care often feel disjointed from the experience- when I talk about this I also want to include the following.

Recent world challenges throws up questions.

I wonder how children and young people feel ,who have had to leave the place they know, the people they know, where they play, to be led away to travel, on such a long and at times frightening journey- How do they feel?

To leave their homes without the adults whom they love and trust who provide a safe loving feeling.

They may have lost the ability to play and in turn are not able to express or play out their worries?

They may have become so shut down and withdrawn that to experience joy, have fun, or smile- is lost.

This will have a huge impact on the way they develop, grow and for their stories to be told- we have to listen, sometimes to the unheard- and sometimes this takes a long time.

Listening to the unheard is often difficult - for the HCP's involved - but how difficult and frightening for the child or young person and their families to tell it- to let us into their inner world.

We have to do this within healthcare too- to assist the healing journey of trauma - to past experiences and look at how it impacts the future of their care.

It's important when working with children, young people and their families that we look at how long a hospital stay will be, will they need regular input within a clinical environment .

Individual Play Programmes are a way of listening to what they have to say- how treatments make them feel- what works well for them to support preparation and distraction- likes and dislikes.

A lengthy stay in hospital or repeated hospital admissions may lead to a decline in reaching developmental milestones - Developmental Play Programmes can help and support to address this.

 They are formulated to ensure delelopmental progress is maintained, and opportunities to explore,have fun and maximise learning in a non- threatening way.