Our Children’s Hospital Emergency Department launches the Stuff2Help Kit Bag
Our Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) cares for more than 63,000 young people, aged 0 to 16, every year. On average, every seven to ten days, among those attending, is a young person who has found themselves in a time of need with limited access to essentials. To help, our Trust has launched the Stuff2Help Kit Bag.
The idea was put forward by Dr Vicki Currie, Paediatric Emergency Registrar, after she came to the aid of a patient who had a breakdown in their foster care placement leaving them without any belongings whilst awaiting an emergency placement. She was moved to put together a help package from a mixture of her own things, staff supplies and items from the ED vending machine so the young person could freshen up and have something to eat.
After this, Vicki felt it would be a valuable resource for the department to have pre-prepared packages available for other young people attending the ED in a similar situation.
She said: “The Stuff2Help Kit Bag is an exciting project, and we hope it will help those in a time of need. I hope it will eventually lead to a rollout across other Emergency Departments across our region and beyond.”
Working in conjunction with organisations, which the Trust already has safeguarding referral pathways and links, West Midlands Violence Prevention Unit, Umbrella and Redthread funding was secured to create a year’s supply of Stuff2Help Kit Bags.
They will be given out to young people who are in a difficult position and find themselves through no fault of their own without basic provisions in a time of need.
Each Kit Bag contain snacks, a re-useable water bottle, a large unisex t-shirt, unisex socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, body wash, a hairbrush, sanitary products, and health promotion leaflets.
Mandy Tyler, Community Partnership Manager with the Umbrella Education Team, said: “Umbrella is privileged to support this very worthy project and have provided the kit bags with Umbrella resources, including condoms and sexual health information to some of Birmingham’s vulnerable young people.”
The content of each bag is adaptable to be age-appropriate for those in need and each has a QR code linking to a webpage where the receiver can leave feedback, which will be used to determine the contents of future bags.
Tyler Lee Martin, Senior Youth Intervention Practitioner from Redthread said: “These bags provide so much for a child in ED. Not just because of the fantastic content, it’s the thought and care that has gone into it to make their situation more comfortable.”