Providing Art And Activity Packs For Patients During Visiting Restrictions

Thanks to generous donations received through our NHS Lothian COVID-19 Appeal and grants from NHS Charities Together, we have been able to go above and beyond to support patient wellbeing during the Coronavirus pandemic.

When visiting restrictions were put in place after the outbreak of Coronavirus, our Tonic Arts team worked with colleagues in hospitals and in the community to see how they could support patients who were no longer seeing loved ones and who felt isolated.

The art and activity packs gave the patients something to interact with during their hospital stay, reducing boredom, anxiety and depression. It was also a way to keep their minds stimulated.The packs included items such as jigsaws, mindfulness colouring books, large print crosswords, playing cards, coloured pens and other activities to keep them occupied. We trialled an initial 150 packs at the start and these were met with such positive feedback that we then funded, collated and distributed over 4,000 to patients across the whole of Edinburgh and the Lothians.

 “I’d like to thank all the folks that put these amazing Activity Packs together for the ladies on Craiglockhart Ward, as you know they have had no visitors to the ward for a few weeks and have been pretty bored on the ward. I do my best to keep them in the loop and occupied when I’m on duty, but having these bags of goodies, I know when I’m not on the ward they do have therapeutic activities to keep them busy and focused. Will you please thank everybody involved from me.”“I have to say a massive thank you to Tonic Arts team at NHS Lothian Charity for organising the activity packs for us. They have been a terrific surprise and extremely successful. The sheer delight on the patients face when they first of all see the package and then when they start to go through it all. They have brought such joy  – So a BIG thank you from all of us here at The Harm Reduction Team,  Spittal Street.”

Thanks again for the activity packs! We didn’t have many resources and now in these circumstances where patients cannot share anything we were struggling to provide them activities to do during their admission. Now, we have more resources than before.”

“For residents with advanced dementia who were shown the light up squeezy balls their face was a picture smiling as the lights went on and off.”

“We got a wonderful supply of art materials.  Each individually packaged with some considered thought gone into each one.  The staff here in ward 17 really appreciated these and patients made good use of them.  Some patients return with their mindfulness books to continue their colouring in.”