Playing is the right of every child

     Play specialists may help children recover from their illnesses.

     Ms Pony Kong, who is working at Kwong Wah Hospital, is one of the hospital play specialists in Hong Kong.

     "Hospital play specialists were introduced to Hong Kong in 1994 by the Playright Children's Playground Association with the help of a donation.

     "They are concerned about the psychosocial needs of sick children and aim at reducing children's boredom during their stay in hospitals.

     "Also, they aim to prevent children suffering from emotional and psychiatric problems."

     According to Ms Kong, the first two specialists worked at Queen Mary Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

     Now, there are two hospital play specialists in Princess Margaret Hospital, and one in Kwong Wah Hospital.

     The introduction of play specialists to Hong Kong was due to a research finding of the Association.

     The research investigated how the young patients, their parents and the medical staff benefited from having a hospital play specialist.

     The findings aroused the awareness of the importance of playing to children staying in hospitals, and the demand for play specialists rose.

     Hospital play specialists' work can be divided into two categories: daily routines and talks.

     Daily routines include holding play programmes for patients and setting up toys in the playrooms for patients according to their ages.

     Besides, patrolling around the wards is the specialists' daily routine task.

     Another duty that a play specialist has to do is to give talks. Talks are divided into active talk and passive talk.

     Active talks are held in kindergartens and nurseries.

     Passive talks will be given to hospitals with no paediatric departments. They will also be given on demand of health centres.

     Before becoming a play specialist, Ms Kong received on-the-job training provided by the school of professional and continuing education (abbrev. SPACE) at the Hong Kong University.

     SPACE began to offer a training course on the request of Playright Children's Playground Association in October 1995.

     Ms Yvonne Becher is the co-ordinator of a course called Certificate in Hospital Play Specialist Training.

     Said Ms Becher: "The course consists of three main parts. They include human growth and development, therapeutic play skills and limitations in hospitals.

     "After graduation, students will get three certificates from SPACE and another two from British organizations."

     In Ms Kong's viewpoint, a hospital play specialist must be willing to communicate with people, particularly with children, since it is his or her duty to communicate with many people, including the young patients, their parents and the hospital staff.

     "We act like a bridge between doctors and patients as well as their parents," said Ms Kong.

     "It will be an advantage for those who had experience in communicating with children because they are more familiar with children's development," Ms Kong added.

     Most of the people who receive training in hospital play services are social workers, teachers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses and child care workers.

     According to Ms Kong, hospital play specialists become increasingly important in the eyes of medical and nursing staffs.

     Ms Kong said: "Nowadays they consult us more, and we often hold case conferences, too."

     However, she is not too optimistic about the prospects for this career in Hong Kong. It is partly because of the lack of funding.

     "As the Hospital Authority does not consider us as its staff, we depend solely on the private donations given to Playright Children's Playground Association.

     "This is the reason for the closure of hospital play services at Queen Mary Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital," she said.

     Nevertheless, Ms Kong thinks that this career has a good prospect overseas.

     She said: "There are many childrens' hospitals in Europe, America and Australia.

     "Initially, only nurses were employed in these overseas' hospitals. However, more play specialists are employed now.

     "Also, this occupation receives professional recognition in some foreign countries."

     Ms Kong thinks that there should be more hospital play specialists in Hong Kong.

     "As we need to spend much time on caring about the children's psychological and emotional needs, we sometimes work overtime and sacrifice our private time to look after our patients.

     "In my opinion, it wouldbe better for each paediatric department to have at least one hospital play specialist," she suggested.

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