Volunteers

We take care of children when their parents need a bit of a rest, to make sure that they are never alone, we accompany the families when they need it most, we organise workshops and recreational activities in the Games Room and we take toys, books and stories or computers to their rooms. These are but some of the many activities carried out by the 200-plus healthcare volunteers of the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital.

The volunteers dedicate their time to looking after the patients and families who are admitted to the Hospital or are scheduled for surgery there. We do not replace the Hospital’s professionals, but we complement their work by organising activities and play spaces that allow the children to express their feelings, communicate and have some fun. We try to make their stay in the Hospital as pleasant as possible, despite their disease and the fact that they are outside their usual setting.

Stand-in service at mealtimes

We stay with the children when their parents have to leave the room at breakfast, lunch or dinner or at other specific times to ensure that they are never alone.

We can also be found in:

• Operating theatres.
• Emergencies.
• ICU.
• Neonatology, giving babies their bottle or simply caressing newborns when the parents cannot be with them.
• In the children’s and maternity wards, both accompanying parents in long-term hospitalisations.
• In Ítaka, at meal times and doing activities.
• In the Palliative Care and Complex Chronic Patient Unit.
• In the outpatient departments, playing and keeping the children entertained in the waiting rooms or livening up the environment with music.
• In the “La Botigueta” supportive shop.
• Helping or accompanying  blind patients that come to the Hospital.