Gold Coast children will receive an extra helping hand through their surgical journeys thanks to a $334,000 funding boost to expand an innovative support program. 

Childrens Hospital Foundation Queensland and Gold Coast Hospital Foundation have received grant funding that will help expand the invaluable Child Life Therapy Program being deliverd at Gold Coast Unisversity Hospital. The funding is a result of a Greater Charitable Foundations commitment of $900,000 in grants this year to help deliver crucial services to those in need across regional NSW and South East Queensland.

The Child Life Therapy program supports young children and their families in their hospital journey by helping counteract fear and distress that is often associated with medical procedures. It includes pre-theatre support, distraction therapy (play, arts and crafts, puzzles), tours and ward orientation, and social emotional support for parents and patients, to put children at ease, and reduce family anxiety around the hospital experience.

The children’s perioperative team at the Gold Coast Hopsital has piloted and established  a part-time Child Life Therapy Service since 2016 with the funding support of the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation. With the Greater Charitable Foundations funding injection, the program will be expanded to a full-time service for the next three years. There is also  future potential to expand the develop the program to other hospitals across the state.

Gold Coast Hospital Foundation CEO, Kim Sutton, said “we are so happy to be able to work with the Children’s Hospital Foundation Qld and Greater Charitable Foundation to test and hopefully replicate this important service across QLD.  Distraction therapy and medical play activities that support the child’s social developmental and emotional wellbeing are so important for helping children overcome their anxiety and move smoothly through their surgical journey”.

Rosie Simpson, CEO of Children’s Hospital Foundation QLD, said she looked forward to seeing the Greater Charitable Foundations funding make a difference for sick and injured kids under going surgery and other prcoedures at  the Gold Coast University Hospital.

“The Child Life Therapy Service fills an important void in the experience of children undergoing treatment in hospital and their families. We know surgery and procedures can be a scary and often overwhelmning experience for young patients, and this service addresses this head on, helping to counteract the fears and anxiety and correct misconceptions,” said Rosie.

‘The Children’s Hospital Foundation is delighted to be able to join forces with the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation to enhance this invaluable program for Gold Coast Children – and potentially children across Queensland.”

Greater Charitable Foundation’s total contribution to community groups has now reached $8 million since 2011 and this year marks a significant milestone in terms of the Foundation’s footprint, expanding further north with financial support also offered to OzHarvest’s NEST initiative to be rolled out across the Gold Coast region.

Help families through unexpected emergencies this Christmas

Christmas is a time of unexpected medical crisis for many families. Our Gold Coast emergency departments see more than a 40% increase in patients during the Christmas holiday period. The emergency departments at Gold Coast University Hospital and Robina Hospital are two of the busiest emergency departments in Australia. Each year, during the Christmas holiday period, patient numbers will rise from an average of 280 patients to more than 400 a day at its peak. This Christmas, help keep families together through medical emergencies by supporting the Foundation’s emergency accommodation service. This service provides an average of 400 nights a year to families with loved ones in hospital to keep them together in times of medical crisis. Your gift will help provide emergency accommodation for families of critically unwell children and adults as well as helping to fund vital research to achieve better outcomes for trauma patients.

Please donate today

Scrub Up September brought together an amazing mix of Gold Coasters, all passionate about helping their community . Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to don their free scrub hats supplied by the Foundation and hold a range of exciting and unique fundraising events to support Gold Coast Health staff. Betty Get Better certainly had her hands full getting around to say hi and Thank You to everyone who participated, but she came back with so many great stories. We’re still counting and with some fundraising activity still to be held, we expect to go close to our $50,000 target, the response from the Gold Coast has been fantastic!

Funds raised during Scrub Up September this year will be used to fund important Gold Coast Health projects like Motor Neuron disease research, and to provide emergency accommodation for families who’ve been displaced and face distress and hardship as a result of serious injury to a loved one who needs trauma care.

If you have a great fundraising idea we want to hear from you. Visit www.scrubupseptember.com.au to register and our team will get in touch with you.

Two cutting edge health research projects on the Gold Coast that could prolong and even save lives, wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of the local community. 

The Gold Coast Hospital Foundation secured $100,000 in donations within just six weeks to fund the Rapid Research Project which aims to reduce diagnosis times for children with sepsis from two days to just a matter of hours.

“This is an exciting time for us on the Coast, with the Gold Coast University Hospital ideally located within the emerging Health and Knowledge Precinct,” said Kim Sutton, CEO of the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation. This is just the start of our efforts to raise funds to support the Gold Coast Health’s research program, she added.

The Foundation’s major fundraiser, the Hospital Heroes Ball on August 4, focused on health research.

“Considering 50 children die each year from sepsis in Australia and New Zealand it is vitally important to reduce diagnosis times as every hour increases mortality by 6 per cent. Another research project will test a new treatment to slow the progression of motor neurone disease, which is known as the ‘1000-day disease’ because the average patient is given a thousand days to live upon diagnosis; it also took the life of the world’s most well-known physicist, Stephen Hawking earlier this year,” Ms Sutton said.

“You can’t cure the disease, but doctors at Gold Coast University Hospital will test new ways to slow disease progression, and enhance life expectancy, by using new medicinal cannabis oil. It’s not only researchers and clinicians that could have an impact worldwide with their research but local residents as well, as it is their decision to donate to the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation that supports this research to happen. Funding and delivering cutting-edge health research will help attract some of the best researchers and clinicians from around the country to come and live and work here.”

To show your support you can make a donation at https://gchfoundation.org.au/donate

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