New superhero lands in West Wales hospitals

A new superhero has landed in West Wales to help children and families who may be anxious about a forthcoming visit to hospital.
Captain Get Well, or Captain G for short, features in a friendly video aimed at children attending Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen, and Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.
The video has been launched by Hywel Dda University Health Board at the end of national Play in Hospital Week, following a host of activities promoting the benefit of play in the NHS.
Directorate Nurse for Children’s Services, Isobel Hall explained: “The video provides children and their families with useful information about what to expect from a hospital stay in a fun, energetic way that we hope will captivate our audience.
“It features our inpatient services as well as paediatric ambulatory care units in each hospital and also the high dependency unit and theatre.
“Our play workers and nurses have ensured the video includes information that we get frequently asked by children and their families – from the treatments and tests that might be carried out to how we help make the environment as friendly and as comfortable as possible. We’ve used the same language they will hear, when we deliver care and visually demonstrated our play and distraction techniques.
“We are really grateful to the families who feature in the video, all of whom are local patients from the three counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.”
The video will be promoted through admission letters provided for children coming into hospital, as well as used on digital screens in hospital waiting areas. Play workers will use the videos when talking to children and families or when they undertake visits to schools and local groups. It will also be promoted through social media.
Head of Communications Yvonne Burson said: “We took on board comments on social media and from parents on the wards about how children can feel anxious about a visit or stay in hospital. At the same time, we often receive lovely feedback from families about how our staff have helped children feel at ease and provided really compassionate care. We wanted to ‘show’ this in action to try and help children understand that hospital is here to help them, and you can even play at the same time.”
The video is available in English and Welsh and is the first video the health board has produced which has subtitles in each language in order to be accessible for children and families with sensory impairments.
The video features Welsh actor Dion Davies, from Llandeilo, whose provides comedy in the role of Captain G, as well as seven-year-old Amelia from Gorslas.
Dion said: “I really enjoyed playing the part of Captain G, it was great fun working with children on the wards and I hope the gift of laughter may help make the whole experience of visiting hospital that bit more enjoyable.”

The video is available to download from a new webpage with information about children’s hospital services at www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/captaing