The Pepper Foundation believes that every child, regardless of the severity of their condition, should have the opportunity to experience the joy of play. So we are very proud to announce the creation of the Pepper Play Service, providing at-home play sessions with our Pepper Play Specialist!
For us to be able to fund this new service, and eventually expand it, we’re aiming to raise an additional £40,000 per year. By making a one-off donation or a regular monthly donation, you can help us ensure that local families can enjoy playtime with our Play Specialist!
Help us fund services at the Pepper Foundation
Following the closure of the children’s service at Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, we recognised the need to ensure that specialist play services continued to be available to the families receiving the service. So we took a big step forward and created the Pepper Play Service.
This is the first time in the history of the Pepper Foundation that we are providing a direct service to families.
The Pepper Play Service is a unique and cutting-edge specialist play service delivering tailored play sessions for children receiving care through our hospice partners. The children we support are used to seeing nursing professionals when receiving medication or needing tests done, so it is so refreshing for them to have someone there whose sole job is to spread joy and to make them feel happy and at ease.
Play is an essential part of every child’s development; it can be a valuable tool to support resilience, help them understand more about their condition, and teach them how to cope with the treatments that form part of everyday life. But most importantly, play allows children to have fun. It expands their life experiences and enables them to spend quality time with siblings and family members.
The children we support can have a lot to deal with between medical treatments and therapies, both at home and at the hospital, so time made for fun is extremely important to their health and well-being. The Pepper Play Service aims to enhance a child’s quality of life, support their development, reduce anxiety, and boost the whole family’s wellbeing.
Social Isolation
Some children live in social isolation due to the complexity of their condition and an inability to leave the house. For these children, a visit from the Pepper Play Service is one of the few fun and social interactions they have all week.
With no other service offering regular play sessions in the home, The Pepper Foundation created the Pepper Play Service to ensure that these children are not forgotten about, that they can always experience the joy of play.
Arts and crafts, and memory-making scrapbooks
Memory-making is a big part of play sessions. Many of the children we work with are unable to do simple things like paint a picture or create a scrapbook of the things they love. But with the help of our Play Specialist, children can create their own art, which they love to do! These pieces of art get stored in a scrapbook or memory box, and they are saved for the families to keep, so that if the child does pass, their memories can last a lifetime. Something they would never have got to do without us.
Group sessions
For the children able to leave the home, the Pepper Play Service will be providing group play sessions during half-term holidays. This means the children we support can play with other children without judgment, and parents can meet other families to support one another and exchange experiences.
Meet Karen, our Play Specialist
I’m Karen and I am a qualified and registered Health play specialist with 13 years’ experience of working in play in healthcare roles.
I started my play in healthcare journey as a play worker in a district general hospital in early 2012. During this time, I completed my Foundation degree in healthcare play specialism to become a qualified play specialist in 2015. I enjoyed my time working in hospital settings, especially forming relationships with patients who have long-term health conditions.
My area of interest has always been working with children who have an oncology diagnosis and children who have complex needs, so when the opportunity arose to establish a play service at Rennie Grove Hospice Care I knew this was the right time for my career to move away from the hospital setting. This was a decision I am very happy I made, as I really enjoyed this role.
I saw first-hand the positive difference bringing play sessions to children’s homes had on children/ Young people and their families. I am excited to be able to continue this work through the Pepper Foundation’s new play service.
I strongly believe in the power of play and that play is for all children/ young people, no matter their abilities. It’s my role to be able to use my skills to adapt play to meet the needs of every child, to bring its benefits to all. I also enjoy using my specialist skills to help children to cope with their treatments, For example supporting a child who experiences excessive anxiety around needles to be able to have their needle based procedures without that debilitating fear – It’s a very rewarding part of the role for me, as reducing their anxiety has a significant impact on the child’s experience of their health care journey.
I am fortunate to be able to say that I am somebody who genuinely enjoys going to work, bringing play sessions to the children and their families – I have met many incredible children and families, and am happy to be able to continue my work with many of them, I am also looking forward to meeting new families in the future.
