Tbh Start-up Manual

Sort out your committee!

TEDDY BEAR HOSPITAL HANDBOOK How to plan your very own TBH – step by step

Generally, these are the kinds of positions you’ll need to fill, though you may be limited by committee size. Job sharing can work well. a) Coordination  Keep everything running!!!  Work out which workshops to do and plan them  National contact b) Teddy-Doctors  Advertising among students and nurses  Taking part in consultations at the TBH  Name badges / t-shirts for Teddy Bear Doctors c) Press / Advertisement  Posters, presentations to sell it to students and schools  Press release (together with the adapted TBH proposal)  Contact to newsletters, radio stations, TV  Pictures (after release forms have been signed by children’s parents) d) Fundraising / Sponsoring  Project description / proposal (see the generic proposal file)  Costing / budget  Ascertaining public and private sponsorship  Merchandising (pens, balloons…) e) Permissions / Insurance  Keeping the university up-to-date  Hospital/school insurance  Personal liability insurance for teddy doctors (MDU/MPS)  Child protection training f) Schools  Identifying schools in the area  Getting in contact with schools

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Arrangement / preparations with headteacher Prepping class teachers, making sure they know what’s going to happen Working out where in the school the TBH can take place Organise tables and chairs in the school Check out toilet facilities and safety issues Design banners for the hospital

   g) Props  List things needed or required (plasters, bandages etc.)  Enquire at hospitals (nursing staff, pharmacy) or go out and buy (liaise with sponsorship people to get free samples)  Brush and paint / paper / pen / balloons / decoration  Drinks / sweets h) Training  Co-ordinate training weekend to cover child protection and workshop structure  Ensure the Teddy Bear doctors are ready  Chase up CRB checks, indemnity Writing about the TBH There’s probably two kinds of document you’ll need… a) Cover letter: Maximum one page: Give a short explanation of the project and his background without mentioning too many details. Contact details are essential and it’s important to mention established support (e.g. the PCT) You can then add a specific inquiry to financial or material support and voila! A sponsor-request letter. b) Proposal: About 3-4 pages:

The proposal is a detailed description of a project. Include information about the organisations, time and budget plans. The proposal should be available if enquiries are made by sponsors, supporters or the press. There is a generic proposal in the TBH starter kit which you can change or adapt to your needs. Website A great opportunity to advertise the TBH and to post photos (make sure you have release forms if there are children in them). Sponsors can be named on the website to increase the chance of getting support. If a website of your own is unfeasible for whatever reason, try contacting your local Medsin branch for a bit of space on theirs – you’ll probably get more relevant interest this way too. Patrons Try to get the dean of your faculty or a paediatric consultant interested in the project and endorse it with their approval. If possible, get them to write a letter, in which s/he explains support of the project. This is a great resource in persuading other people that the TBH is a great idea! In addition they can help you with PR opportunities (as they probably have a bit more experience than you). Getting doctors onside is also really useful for the training aspects of the TBH. Organisation In general there are three possibilities: 1) School model – the TBH is held in the gym or similar large room and the doctors go to the children. This is particularly useful for pilot projects and small scale TBH projects where your numbers are limited.

2) Tent model – the TBH is held in a public place in a town (in Europe the TBHs tend to be held in large tents). More children can come in theory, but you may have issues with permission from the council, a need for increased vigilance in terms of child protection and crowd control!! It’s also more likely to get substantial press attention. 3) Hospital model – the TBH is held in your teaching hospital. This is useful in terms of access to resources (like lightboxes or similar) but has the downside of provoking a bit more anxiety than the safe atmosphere of the school. It’s a good idea when the PCT already has a programme involving taking school children into hospitals to see what they’re like – there’s no point in reinventing the wheel so if such a project exists then linking into it is not a bad idea. If you’re planning it in town, try to find: • A quiet place without streets and traffic • Shade in the summer (children get dehydrated very quickly) • Soft ground (for example, grass) • Toilet facilities! • Electricity (but not essential) Fundraising: The basis for all the enquiries is a cover letter or proposal, which outlines the support proposed (amounts of money, material assets; how much and what exactly you want and what you will use it for) Try the following authorities: • Dean or directly to the university (student unions often have special funding available) • PCT – they may have a budget for this. Also try to contact some UKPHA (Public Health Authority) people • Private sponsors - Pharmacies

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Toy shops Photocopying shops Producers of sweets/stickers Libraries

External support We used stickers from the Sticker Factory (www.stickerfactory.co.uk) which they kindly sent as free samples. Most of their stickers are aimed at teachers so sponsorship from them is a possibility. It may be worth contacting the local ambulance service to see if they’ll bring an ambulance down – apparently this is pretty popular with the kids but the chances of this happening depend on where you are setting the project up! As ever, Medsin is around to help. For any queries or questions, contact the Teddy Bear Hospital Co-ordinator at [email protected]. Contacting schools Address lists for local schools are often found in the town hall or town council website. You could also contact private nurseries & play groups. To get them interested, send the proposal, an outline of how the TBH will work practically and provide a personal contact (by phone or by visiting them). This needn’t be the president – you can have someone (or more than one person) whose role is to be a school liaison. After confirmation from the organisation of the number of children and when they would like to come, you should stay in regular contact and remind them of the TBH.

Discuss with the class teachers how the TBH will work and what the children will do. Before coming to the TBH, the children should be given time to think in advance about what their teddy’s complaint is, and could perhaps discuss this in class. It can be difficult to think something up at the TBH itself. Timetable: You should plan approx 10mins consultation time for each child and his teddy. Depending from the size of the TBH and the number of the teddy docs you can plan the rest of the TBH to ensure each child will get some consultation time. Teddy Bear Doctors and Training In principle you can also ask, apart from medical students, PGCE students or pharmacy students, as well as nurses. The number of people who are helping depends on the size of your hospital. Ideally, you need about 10-15 teddy docs and 2-3 people from the committee in the TBH every shift. Everyone should bring a stethoscope and a smile!! TBH training must be undertaken before working at the TBH. A possible structure for TBH training: • Consultations with children (perhaps from a paediatrician) How to take a history, explaining to the children everything you are doing with his teddy, especially reminding them of the sensory impressions such as auscultation: “that feels cold” • Explanation of the how the TBH works (committee) • Psychological aspects of illness; how the child perceives the hospital and medical process (play specialist/child & adolescent psychiatrist)

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Ethics – confidentiality, consent, competence, duty of care (ethicist/consultant paediatrician) What to do if things start to go wrong! (debrief time, child protection issues)

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Teddy Bear Docs MUST have MDU/MPS cover & an enhanced CRB disclosure.

Press relations The official press report should be a single A4 page and should describe the project, the idea, the patrons and your contact details. Publication of the press report: - you can either contact all newspapers, radio & TV stations (try the phone book, yellow pages or the internet) - or contact the central PR- office at the university – that will save you a lot of work and it might get more attention! - further on you should contact the local newspapers by telephone, they often have a responsible journalist for university activities or local events. - timetable: absolutely necessary!!! - remind the people who are responsible for the TBH 1 month before (press report) 1 week before 1 day before! - during the TBH there should be one or two organizers who are responsible to answer questions, give interviews… The Medsin Branch Resource pack contains an excellent guide entitled “How to Write a Press Release”, written by StudentBMJ editor Deborah Cohen. It is well worth downloading this and passing it on to your publicity co-ordinators. A copy can be obtained from www.medsin.org, through your local Medsin

branch or by contacting the National Secretary ([email protected]). You should keep in mind, that the press, especially the cameras can be very frightening for the kids and it can be a hindrance for you to give them your full attention. Therefore try to deal with press issues separately! For the best press attention you DO want photos/tv footage to be taken, but ensure that you have gained parental consent for this! If the school sends out permission forms for participation in the TBH then this might be a good time to get the consent in – maybe delegate this task to the school liaisons.

This is divided into a waiting room and the consultations themselves. In the waiting room, children can fill out a history form, colour some pictures, learn about their heart (using the stethoscopes with spare Teddy Bear Doctors) or anything else you can think of! They must be supervised by Teddy Bear Doctors, receptionists or teachers. Half the group does this while the other half are in consultation. -

How the TBH works The TBH works in two phases. After an initial introduction and warm up for the children (playing Simon Says or similar), the children split into:

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Workshop time: The children are divided into groups which cycle through different health promoting workshops. At one station the children have their Teddy Bear consultation. In general, three workshops of 20mins each with 20mins at the consultation maintains the attention span of the average 3-7 year old without letting them get bored. Workshops can be completely driven by the health needs of the area; they may include healthy eating, learning about senses, how and when to get help in an emergency (for older children), road safety, sharps safety, medicines safety or anything else relevant to the age and situation at your TBH. Consultation time:

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In the consultation, things are driven by the child and occur as a normal hospital consultation would. First the child explains the history of the illness or injury their teddy bear has to a teddy doctor. The teddy doctor examines the teddy (inspection, palpation, auscultation etc.) and plans investigations (e.g. x-ray). Most teddy bears present with broken arms and legs but it helps to be prepared for anything! After this the teddy gets medical treatment; ALWAYS noninvasive treatments with tapes and bandages and no medication (this may present confusion between medicines and sweets)/ Finally the teddy doctor writes a prescription for love and hugs. You may wish to give the child a certificate at this point to show that they have attended the Teddy Bear Hospital.

13. Follow-up - Debrief the team with a child and adolescent psychiatrist or similar interested professional - Remember to thank your supporters and sponsors, e.g. by sending them copies of press articles, pictures or letters. - Write an article for the university-magazine - Write a final report - Consider contact parents/the school to ask for specific feedback – it will help your relationship with them which in turn will help your relationship with other schools and parents!

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Maintain contact with schools who are pleased with the TBH – you can always go back next year and see the new year group!