The program "In hospital with Licorice" is a coherent pack of projects that provide the patients with free time activities in order to meaningfully fill their time. Another reason why this program is so important is the goal of making patients' stay in a hospital as pleasant as possible, improving their mood in the process. It happens quite often that good mood can speed up the recovery process.
More than 4,300 patients are hospitalized annually on hospital wards of Thomayers Hospital in Prague. Their time spent in bed sometimes goes by very slowly. Our goal is to fill their time in hostpital with some meaningful leisure activity and thereby enhance their psychological well-being. Bring to the hospital more interpersonal contact, connect isolated world with the world of healthy patients.
One hundered volunteers visit each week patients at 13 hospital wards. They are talking, playing games or going for walks in the hospital grounds together. Sometimes canistherapy dogs and other animals - rabbit, cat and guinea-pig come with volunteers on some hospital ward to please the patients. We also prepare an accompanying program for patients - concerts, lectures, art workshops and theatrical performances of children.
Our volunteers visit approximately 3,000 patients annually, mostly children and the elderly. The time they spend together improves patient's mood and overall atmosphere in the hospital. Helping patients to focus on other things than their illness makes them not only more optimistic, but it also increases their motivation to heal and they tend to return home earlier. Pleasant atmosphere in the hospital and special events for medical staff also help preventing psychological burnout of hospital sta
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
