This week is Scottish Children’s Health Week! 👧🏾👦🏼
Scottish Children’s Health Week runs from 4 – 10 September 2023 and has been created to focus on the health and wellbeing of children and young people and their right to the best possible health.
Read on to find out how NHS Lothian puts children’s rights and wellbeing at the heart of young people’s care, and find out more about this week’s activities at Children’s Health Scotland.
Pam Murray, Child Health Commissioner for NHS Lothian
Hi Pam! Tell us a bit about your role
I am the Child Health Commissioner for NHS Lothian; this means I provide leadership and expertise on all aspects of child health and related policies. I have a role in understanding the health needs of infants, children and young people and work with a wide range of organisations and people to support the delivery of services to meet those needs. It is my job to listen to children and young people and to be an advocate for them.
What made you want to work in children’s health?
I believe that for people to reach their full potential it is important to start at the beginning of a person’s life with prevention, early detection of need and support.
I want to help people delivering services to make sure they are doing everything they can to make sure it is effective and in the best interests of infants, children, young people and their families.
Some children and young people can find it hard to express their needs or to be heard; I hope to support them to have their voices listened to. Decisions that affect children and young people should be made with them. They should be supported and encouraged to participate in a way that is appropriate to their age and developmental stage.
What’s the best part of your job?
I love that in one day I can be talking with children and young people in the morning and later that same day working with people in Scottish Government and sharing the thoughts and ideas of those children and young people to help shape policy decisions and developments.
I enjoy supporting everyone to recognise, respect and promote the rights of all children to be treated fairly, to be heard and to grow up loved, happy and healthy.
Why is Scottish Children’s Health Week important to recognise?
Children’s Health Week puts children and young people at the heart of discussions; it recognises and celebrates that infants, children and young people have requirements that are special and different to adults and that they should be treated equally and with dignity and respect.
Lorna Galbraith, Play Specialist for NHS Lothian
Hi Lorna! Tell us a bit about your role
I’m Lorna, the Play Specialist on Dalhousie Ward at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People. I have worked with children for 24 years. On the ward, we can have babies, children and young people of all ages at any one time, including children with complex health needs and learning differences.
Why is play so important?
Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the Right to Play – we use play for wellbeing, to help children prepare for procedures and as a distraction if they’re frightened. Play is also a way to relieve boredom or can be just for fun! Play is so important in hospital as it can help children to cope during an admission.
What’s the best part of your job?
The best parts of my job are getting creative with children and how varied every day is – I can be finding books and sensory toys for a baby, arranging one of our gaming carts for an older patient and then helping a child get through a procedure that they might find frightening, like an MRI scan or a blood test. I also get to know the wider family and can help them to find out about other support around the hospital.Â
There’s a lot of hard work that goes into making our hospital a welcoming, friendly place that is less scary. Â We use play as much as possible to keep a sense of normality in what can be a very unfamiliar environment for all of the children, young people and families that we look after.
