Giving our young patients the very best start

In Life

The opening of our brand-new Mental Health Hub represents a very important step forward in transforming the lives of children. Sunflower House, our inpatient unit supports children aged 5-13 with the most challenging mental health conditions. The 12-bedroom unit, complete with an American diner, classrooms and calming private therapy spaces has set a new benchmark for residential mental health care. We recently welcomed our first young people, and both staff and children are settling well into their new home from home.

I am delighted to see our ambition of delivering state of the art facilities for children’s mental health is finally realised. Sunflower House is an amazing environment which will support our children with complex needs to become the exceptional and brilliant adults they are destined to be.

Lisa Cooper, Director of Community & Mental Health Services.

As we look forward to warmer months, we will offer a diverse range of programmes and activities both in the unit, and across the health care campus. These will ensure that children have the best possible start in life to manage their own health and well-being positively. Social prescribing activities provide young people with access to a range of non-clinical support and Alder Hey is leading the way in designing activities to support mental well-being.

The therapy garden within Sunflower House will provide children with access to outdoor space throughout the summer where they can learn, relax, play, and even lead on their own gardening projects. Our weekly Forest School provides outdoor education-based activities and exposure to nature designed to increase young people’s confidence, social and emotional skills, communication, and care for the environment. We’re looking forward to viewing nature slides and using natural resources to build bird boxes and bug houses! The NatureWell programme, a 6-week intervention using the outdoors and nature to heal and rejuvenate, is also encouraging older children and their parents to work together and develop parent-child relationships.

Our young people will be taking to the water and undertaking fishing coaching at North West Angling Academy along with their parents. This is a special way to increase family communication. Arts and creativity are an important model of therapy for our young people, and we’re excited that this summer, they will have the chance to take part in pottery and photography sessions. The arrival of a new ‘Dome’ called Base Camp will allow our outside art activities to continue through the winter months.

Our ambition and focus are to support as many young patients as we can from our health care campus. Our work with external partners to facilitate rich experiences means young people in our care have opportunities, life chances and the potential to lead safe and happy lives.

If you would like more information how you can support social prescribing projects at Alder Hey, please contact: amanda.jones@alderhey.nhs.uk

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7, 087children

7,087

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