Canberra emergency department has new tools for neurodivergent kids

The Canberra Times

Dr Alison Lally at the Canberra Hospital shows Max Fenton, a 12-year-old with autism, some of the tools to distract himself from the chaos of the emergency department.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:06 This is a VR headset and it's something that you might like.

00:11 What we can do is show you what programs we have.

00:14 Some people do find it a little bit petty but it's a good distraction tool,

00:18 which sometimes can be nice in the ED.

00:21 Look around and see the stars or the sharks in the water or the seals

00:29 or the puppies, that's what I like, or the magic show.

00:32 So a few people like the magic show if you want to give that a go.

00:35 And this came as a donation from the Canberra Hospital Foundation.

00:41 And when I first saw this, one of the things that I asked was the benefits

00:45 for neurodiverse kids because with my son being autistic,

00:50 I really wanted to, now that I'm in that kind of mental health space,

00:54 to help others.

00:56 As you know, as a mum, you don't always in that headspace.

00:59 Any kid loves it because it's a distraction from the procedures that happen,

01:03 also the noise and the bright lights and chaos of the ED.

01:08 [Music]

01:11 And this is so that they are aware of why it needs to happen,

01:15 what are the appropriate steps that are going to happen,

01:18 and also what it's going to look like afterwards,

01:20 which are really key things because the uncertainty becomes

01:23 really stressful for a lot of our kids.

01:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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