Care with a teddy bear

The Trauma Teddy initiative is the brainchild of members of the Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe, who have been operating the scheme in the Republic of Ireland for some time, but on Monday it was introduced to the Ambulance Service for the first time at Altnagelvin.

The new ‘teddy’ service will complement an existing initiative in place initiated by the Friends of Altnagelvin, who have a toy service for children.

Station Office Sammy Nicholl welcomed the Trauma Teddy scheme, and has paid tribute to the many women who spent their free time knitting the teddies - each of which comes with its own handmade sleeping bag and label telling the recipient it has been knitted ‘with love’.

“The teddies are hand-knitted and presented to us and from Monday if a young child is brought into hospital as a result of an accident or brought in for admission to hospital what we will be doing is presenting them with the toy. It is in a sealed bag and they can take the toy with them right through their whole hospital experience, and it will be their’s to keep at the end of it, as a reminder of their visit to the hospital.

“As you can appreciate, young children when they come in they are very anxious and very frightened and don’t know what to expect. Then if they are not feeling well on top of that it adds to their trauma, so this is just to give them a little lift,” said Station Officer Sammy Nicholl.

The Ambulance staff got presented with the teddies in the week before Christmas, but Mr Nicholl said the teddies had been kept until the New Year and staff had started giving them to children this week.

“We did not start the scheme because of the Christmas holidays and one thing and another, but they will be in the ambulances from this week on. These toys are really loved and apparently the Mothers’ Union do this scheme in the South of Ireland and have now decided to expand it into Northern Ireland.

“It is obvious the Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe have put a lot of effort and time into making these teddies and on behalf of the Ambulance Service I would like to thank them for their efforts,” he said.