Loans Library

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A world of toys and games

The Loans Library is a service that offers patients a wide range of toys, games and crafts that can be borrowed during their time in hospital. Volunteers visit the wards with a trolley full of fun resources, inviting patients to borrow whatever catches their eye. Children are welcome to borrow items from the Loans Library for their stay in hospital.

As the hospital experience can be particularly overwhelming for children, inserting play time into their day-to-day activity allows kids time to just be kids. The Loans Library is a simple initiative with a huge impact, enhancing the healing environment by bringing joy to patients.

For all children, especially those who might be confined to bed, the Loans Library ensures that they don’t have to be bored during their stay in hospital or miss out on the daily moments of play that every child should be able to enjoy.

For the families of patients, seeing their children play means more than words could measure. The children’s eyes light up when they see the friendly entertainment volunteers walk in with their trolley full of games and toys.

Holly’s Story

Holly was born with a hyperplastic heart, which meant that the left side of her heart didn’t develop.  When she was just one day old, Holly had her first operation and then at three months had her second operation. Holly’s last major surgery was when she was four and will hopefully be the last major operation she’ll need.

During Holly’s time at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, her mum Tamara was able to make the long hospital stays more bearable by tapping into the Loans Library Service.

“We first found out about Loans Library when Holly was admitted for her third open heart surgery. She was a little bit older then, so it was a great time to discover it.

“We found it amazing, we would go up and get things to help get movement from her arms when the therapists needed it and the toys just motivated her.

“Her favourite was probably the Play-Doh because she could do that in bed, and then as she got better she loved the hungry hippos and playing that game with the family – just to see that smile come back after you haven’t seen it for a while, it was beautiful.

“It’s an amazing thing because you could get so many toys, from Play-Doh to baby toys to Lego. There’s so much there to pick from –we could just go up whenever we needed it, to just entertain her and getting her sitting up in bed or moving around.

“We live a fair way away from the hospital so to bring things into the hospital is just not going to happen.

“The volunteers were so great, we’d either visit them on Level 6 or they’d bring Holly toys when she wanted them, which was a huge help.

“I would encourage everyone to use it, they have so much selection for all age groups and it just keeps the kids busy because there’s not much to do in hospital.

“When you are in a room by yourself, you don’t want them watching TV all the time, so it gets them sitting up, moving and encourages their hand movement – sometimes they are a bit reluctant to move their fingers if they have drips and drains.

“It made the hospital more fun for her and it also helped us with her physio exercises, we’d just pick toys that we knew would have the added benefit of movement and it made a world of difference.”

Holly_cardiac

How to access the Loans Library at Queensland Children’s Hospital

The Loans Library is a service that runs out of Kidzone (during Kidzone opening hours). You can visit the Kidzone to loan toys and games or ask a volunteer in a green shirt.

This service is only made possible with the support of generous donors. For more information on how you can support the Loans Library, talk to one of our friendly volunteers or contact Volunteer Services on 07 3068 1662

Looking to volunteer?

Volunteers are a big help to families whose world has been turned upside down. If you would like to help us work wonders with sick kids, head to our Get involved page to learn more about the many ways you can get involved with the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

If you have found all the information you need and would like to apply to become a Children’s Hospital Foundation volunteer, click the button below.

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