Going into hospital can be a daunting experience for any child. For children who are deafblind or have multi-sensory impairments (MSI) the challenges are even greater. 

Because they have little or no sight or hearing, often combined with other disabilities, they can easily become frightened and disorientated in unfamiliar surroundings.

We know that hospital staff will only meet deafblind children occasionally and may be uncertain how best to support their MSI needs. However, there is a lot that can be done to make a child’s stay more pleasant and comfortable, plus much information on the various different causes of deafblindness.

Piloting our support

To help support hospital staff we are piloting the use of a practical booklet – Multi-sensory impaired children in hospital. This explains what is meant by multi-sensory impairment and how this affects the everyday lives of children and families. It also offers practical tips and ideas to help to make the hospital stay less stressful and includes resources for staff who would like to know more. 

The booklet is not currently available for download but will be published later in 2013.

Training

Sense Children’s Specialist Services also have experience of providing training for health services staff on deafblindness and are able to offer practical suggestions about how best to support MSI children in hospital.

If you would like to find out about commissioning Sense to provide training for your team, please contact Sense’s Information and Advice service.

Further support

Our other support packages are:

Opening Doors – support for when a child has recently received an identification of deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment.
Tuning In – helping parents and carers to develop effective ways of communicating with their pre-school child.
Getting a Result – helping young people make the move into adult life.
Direct Support – for when you are experiencing particular problems relating to your child’s deafblindness or multi-sensory impairment.

For parents

If your child goes into hospital and you would like some support around this please contact your identified Sense worker. If you are new to Sense, then please contact Sense’s Information and Advice service who will ensure that you are put in touch with the right person:

Email: info@sense.org.uk

Tel: 0845 127 0066 or 020 7520 0972

Textphone: 0845 127 0066 or 020 7520 0972

Fax: 0845 127 0061

Related links

Communicating with deafblind people

Deafblindness and your child