Children’s Hospice South West

Children’s Hospice South West are three hospices based in Devon and Cornwall providing care for families of children who will not survive childhood, from diagnosis to bereavement. They currently care for 540 families providing palliative care and various therapeutic services.

In August we visited CHSW in Devon and donated £2000 for music therapy sessions. We spent some time visiting the Hospice and meeting therapists and carers. The Music Therapist gave an honest account how her therapy supports the children and how over the years, she has seen the benefits it gives to the children.

The music therapy is rooted into the whole care and ethos of each hospice- enabling the therapists and care teams to respond to each child’s physical, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs in the most appropriate way. 

The needs of child may be complex and mobility may be limited. The music therapist may devise a session combining singing, playing, listening, improvising, composing and storytelling through sound stories – offering children a safe place in which to express themselves.

It is a truly wonderful space for children and their families and we would like to thank Ann and Ceridwen for showing us around and explaining the truly amazing work that they do.