Rainbow Community Hub:

CHFT Charity were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to bring the Rainbow Community Hub to life when they needed to be moved from Calderdale Royal Hospital as part of reconfiguration. The Rainbow Child Development Service supports children and young people aged 0-18 years who have complex needs, development delay and disabilities. CHFT Charity wanted to make sure that the team secured the right building to carry out their amazing work for many people and families across Calderdale and Huddersfield. The Clock House Building in Elland is a more central position across our locality. This building also has enough space to accommodate other support services required by families such as specialist nursing teams and community therapy services; this reduces time, travel, and stress on our patients.

The old building at CRH didn’t have a lot of space for certain sessions/groups, it wasn’t colourful, bright, or relaxing, neither was it suitable to have all the different support services in one building. CHFT Charity managed to bring the new centre to life by putting just over £80K into resources, equipment, and items such as the garden space (accessible to all), a sensory room and play and distraction toys.

Patients have recently explained to us that the new centre is comfortable and welcoming which helps to calm down a stressful and sometimes difficult appointment. Many children hate attending hospital appointments which is understandable, our main task was to make sure that this centre was a friendly and approachable environment, away from a clinical view. We believe we achieved this and can’t wait to hear many more stories about our younger patients thriving.

The charity team have formed a longstanding and impactful relationship with the Rainbow Community Hub Team and can't wait to work with them again in the future to continue to enhance our patient care and experience.

Take a look at the Rainbow Community Hub video to see how friendly the centre is.

Children's Bereavement Services:

Thanks to kind donations, we have been able to support families who are going through bereavement. CHFT Charity have been able to supply a stock of helpful books and guides for Liz Martel, Key Worker in Child Death, to access and give out to families in need. 

These books will make sure a massive difference to children and families that Liz meets and will be able to support the role. Liaz explained to us that every situation is different, but each book will certainly give families a lot of help at a devastating time in their lives. 

We have also recently funded a new pre-child bereavement resource called My Forever Box. My Forever Box is a personal memory making box to enable a child to process the death of a significant adult or sibling and to have their own safe box. The box aims to support the child and adult, enabling the pre bereaved child to process what is happening to their loved one, process grief, initiating conversations regarding death and dying in a sensitive and timely manner.

CHFT Charity are grateful to be able to help such impactful projects like this. Thanks to your kind donations, we have been able to fund the first hundred boxes, costing £30 per box. We would like to say a special thanks to the colleagues who have driven The Pre-Child Bereavement Project, Staff Nurse Rebecca Fletcher, Specialist Nurses Anthony Thomas and Gemma Gordon, Lead Nurse for Children and Young People Julie Mellow, Cancer Information Manager Mandy Davies, Matron Abbie Thompson and key Worker for Child Death Liz Martel.

Hope Bags:

Thanks to kind donations, CHFT Charity has been able to fund 'Hope Bags' for children and young people who are struggling with mental health issues. These bags include items that will help to reduce stress, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, agitation, or self-harm.

Any patient aged up to 16 years on the paediatric ward who has mental health concerns who are having negative thoughts etc. will be given a bag of items to distract and uplift their mood. Most items in the bags are sensory related which will have a positive impact and improve patient experience, decrease boredom which will impact their mood and will be able to access these bags whenever needed and keep them.

“The Hope bags are a fabulous idea to help up improve patient experience. We have had a big increase of children and young people being admitted to the ward for mental health issues over the past couple of years. These bags will help make a difficult stay in hospital more comfortable.” – Lola Duncan, Ward Manager.

Each bag will obtain various items such as:

Pictures, elastic bands, fidgets, craft items, stress balls, soft toys, bubbles, notebook, pens, inspirational quotes, calm cards, anxiety cards, essential oils, hand cream, floral room spray, music items, breathing technique guides, sensory items etc.