Lisa Isaacs
BRIDGING the gap between an isolating adult hospital ward and the restlessness of a children’s ward, a youth booth was launched at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital yesterday.
The R70 000 Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Youth Booth was donated by a local charity, Ari’s Cancer Foundation, with the aim of creating a comfortable space to take the youth away from the realities of their sickness as well as their dull hospital surroundings.
Ariana Jansen, who lost her battle to cancer in May 2011 at the age of 24, was the inspiration for Ari’s Cancer Foundation.
The booth space provides a comfortable workspace and recreational area for patients while they are undergoing treatment.
It has an iPad embedded into it and wi-fi, along with a computer so that they can work on homework or projects, and books and magazines.
Jansen’s father Alan said: “We recognised that a young person doesn’t fit in to either the world of the child or world of the adult. Their needs… are not only physical but psycho-social.
“The booth is a space that relates to the young person, it’s energised and it allows them to be cut off a little bit from the world of their challenge. They are more aware of what it means to have this particular diagnosis and they are self-conscious,” he said.
Alan Davidson, head of haematology and oncology at the hospital, said it is a particular problem in cancer treatment and other areas in paediatric medicine to make young adults feel comfortable.
“Teenagers in paediatric units struggle with crying babies and an environment which does not recognise their need to have some autonomy.
“Other adolescents and young adults in adult units are equally vulnerable to alienation in services that are not set up to deal with their psychosocial needs.”
He added that the booth, following suit with those used internationally, could make a difference.
Zyaan Makda, 14, from Mitchells Plain, has been in and out of hospital for 10 years with Beta thalassemia – a blood disorder that reduces the production of the iron-containing protein in red blood cells.
She comes to the hospital for blood transfusions every second week and calls the hospital her second home.
“I basically grew up here with the doctors and nurses. It’s difficult now with high school. It’s hard to kind of find your place in general, so it’s good to have a bit of privacy, and I can use the computer and wi-fi for assignments.
“In a way it’s a middle ground for us,” she said.
Ari’s Cancer Foundation aims to set up similar AYA Youth Booths in oncology units around South Africa.
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