Reopening of the DREAMSEEDS Shelter, which has been nurturing patients' dreams for 9 years
- Provide physical, emotional, and social care for children and adolescents with severe and rare incurable diseases and their families
- After 4 months of remodeling, it has been renovated into a resting space for youth and various program spaces.
[Picture] The entrance to DREAMSEEDS Shelter [Picture] Inside of DREAMSEEDS Shelter
On the first floor of Seoul National University Children’s Hospital, there is a special space called ‘DREAMSEEDS Shelter’. DREAMSEEDS is a pediatric palliative care program that contains the hope that the flower seeds of determined dreams will sprout. It opened in April 2015 to improve the quality of life by providing holistic care, including physical, emotional, and social aspects, to pediatric patients and their families who are experiencing difficulties in the treatment process due to life-threatening, severe and incurable diseases.
Recently, after a 4-month remodeling, this space has been newly transformed into a resting space for teenagers and a space for various programs.
Seoul National University Hospital held an opening ceremony on June 21st and announced on June 30th that it had reopened the DREAMSEEDS Shelter to create a more comfortable atmosphere for pediatric patients and their families suffering from severe and rare incurable diseases and to carry out various programs.
In the future, DREAMSEEDS Shelter plans to plan and operate various programs that patients and guardians of all ages can enjoy together, including mental and emotional support programs.
On this day, Kim Young Tae (SNUH director), Choi Eun Hwa (children's hospital director), Park Joon Dong (integrated care center director), Kim Min Sun (professor of pediatrics), and the children, the stars of DREAMSEEDS, participated in and added all the more meaning to the event.
The DREAMSEEDS Shelter has 3,370 registered patients as of the end of last year, and more than 3,000 patients are using it. Last year, a total of 4,119 cases were used, with an average of 343 pediatric patients per month. Assuming that each patient is accompanied by one guardian, at least 686 people use it on average per month.
In addition, for patients who cannot visit the shelter due to isolation and mobility difficulties, a ward connection program is being conducted by recruiting 1:1 volunteer. Despite the difficulties of non-face-to-face and small-scale operation due to Covid-19, as of last year, a total of 115 patients were connected to wards bringing the patient population to 857, including 266 non-face-to-face and 591 face-to-face.
A total of 225 programs were planned and operated to continuously communicate with and help patients and guardians. Although there were difficulties due to COVID-19, various programs including 10 children's programs (e.g. music therapy, painting workshop, healing macrame, visiting craft school, science class, Wednesday puppet theater), 6 youth & guardian programs, and 10 special programs and events proceeded.
[Picture] DREAMSEEDS Opening Ceremony Participation Event
In addition, there was a total of 16,141 intervention cases communicated with patients and guardians; including 5543 telephone and text interventions, 3340 face-to-face interventions, 2203 outpatient and medical discussions, 1711 resource linkages, 1003 home visits, 486 end-of-life care and bereavement care, and 107 special school tours, etc.
Choi Eun Hwa, director of Children's Hospital, said, “DREAMSEEDS has played a major role in improving the quality of life by providing rest and energy to pediatric patients and their families suffering from severe, rare and incurable diseases for the past nine years. I hope that the experience of DREAMSEEDS will be remembered as another medicine named ‘joy, pleasure, and play’ that gives great strength to speed up healing and discharge from the pediatric and adolescent patients receiving treatment.”
Meanwhile, DREAMSEEDS (Integrated Care Center Pediatric Palliative Care Team) released a children's book called 'Jewel Bead' to the world in March. It is a storybook for all families who have separated from their beloved older brother, sister, older brother, older sister, younger sister, daughter, and son, and provides warm and calm comfort. Jewel beads flow from the eyes of a child and parents who lost their older brother to leukemia, and the jewel beads gathered one by one create a large light, brightening the family's dark heart. In the end, the older brother left, but he turned into a sparkling jewel and was together in the hearts of the whole family. This book can be downloaded from the DREAMSEEDS website.
** 링크: http://dreamseeds.co.kr/