Hello from Katie and Emma – This year we’ll be ‘decking the wards’ to provide child and adolescent psychiatric wards with games, home comforts, and small luxuries to make Christmas in hospital a little easier. For lots of us the festive period is usually about spending time with loved ones; playing games; and treating ourselves and each other. For many children, Christmas is going to be very different. A psychiatric hospital can feel like a scary and unfamiliar place. During a mental health crisis, some young people may be too distressed to understand what is happening to them or why. Some young people are able to stay in hospital voluntarily and others may need to be ‘sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act. Some children and young people get sent to hospitals far away from home, sometimes hundreds of miles across the country. This can be isolating and makes it harder for them to keep in contact with family and friends, especially during the holidays. Some young people will not be well enough to leave the ward during their admission, and some may even be in hospital for Christmas itself. We will be asking children and young people what might make it easier for them to be in hospital - games, toys, treats etc. With your help we can buy exactly what they’ve asked for and pack it off to the wards for Christmas. Each ward has its own unique list. Some may want stockings and stocking fillers, others table tennis tables, Bluetooth speakers and so on. The items will then stay on the ward to help brighten the experience of many children and young people to come. When you’re scared, bored or lonely, it’s these things that can really make a difference.

Katie spent holidays on the ward as a teenager: ‘Spending time in hospital over the festive period was really hard. All the education is stopped, in line with school holidays, and that means long empty periods of time stuck on the wards. The extra unoccupied time in the days makes it easier to focus on all the difficult stuff that’s happening and on what you’re going through. It’s hard not to feel left behind when you know your friends and family are getting to spend time together and enjoy the festivities. When you have a mental health problem it can feel like the world forgets you. We want to make sure children and young people on psychiatric wards aren’t forgotten. We can’t wait to get started this year!

What we need from you:

With your donations we'll use our fundraiser to provide items such as books, games, Christmas decorations and treats, luxury toiletries and much more. This year we hope we’ll be able to provide all this and anything else we can get our hands on to make this Christmas feel special. We are extremely grateful for any and all help you are able to give us this Christmas, and we're sure the young people on the ward will be too.

The ’Deck the Wards’ campaign is run entirely by volunteers and we are so grateful for all their hard work!