{"id":6378,"date":"2017-09-08T10:32:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T00:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=6378"},"modified":"2017-09-11T13:25:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T03:25:18","slug":"grandparent-role-a-natural-fit-for-nana-david","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/grandparent-role-a-natural-fit-for-nana-david\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandparent role a natural fit for \u2018Nana\u2019 David"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
David Farrar loves his role as ward grandparent at the RCH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a long career in corporate management, raising three children (two of whom have spent considerable time in hospital), and having six of his own grandchildren to care for, you wouldn\u2019t think David Farrar would be nervous about meeting a little girl. But, on his first day of volunteering at The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital (RCH), David said nerves got the better of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very nervous when I met my first \u2018grandchild\u2019,\u201d David explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she stood up and gave me a big squeeze and a cuddle, and it was just so gorgeous.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted me to come back. She asked her mother if it\u2019d be OK for her to call me \u2018Nana David\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time to spare<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a ward grandparent with the RCH was a natural fit for David, who retired three years ago and was looking to do more for the community.<\/p>\n

After applying and being accepted, David, like all ward grandparents, had to undertake special training. All volunteer training is organised by the RCH\u2019s Volunteer Services department, and Vanessa Pound said the program had been hugely successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ward grandparents are selected and assigned to a family, with whom they arrange suitable days and times to visit,\u201d Vanessa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a commitment of three days a week, three hours per day, for as long as the family needs \u2014 this can be weeks, months, or sometimes years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving families a break<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social worker Vicki Young said the ward grandparent role was special because it could reduce stress issues that impact families who are in hospital for a long time.<\/p>\n

Usually, social work or nursing staff made a referral and submitted the request to the Volunteer Services department. Vicki said ward grandparents were matched to families who were in the most need.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies who may not have extended family support because they might be from overseas, or they don\u2019t have other people to help them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another person going in there and having a chat with the child and giving the family space to reduce their stress levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many parents don\u2019t want to leave their child without someone they know or they trust being at the bedside, so the ward grandparents can give families the opportunity to leave the hospital and have a break or attend to other children or commitments.<\/p>\n

A smile says it all<\/strong><\/p>\n

David said the rewards of the role were mostly very simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust seeing this little girl smile \u2013 she has spent half her life with medical problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she gets bored, so we play Play-Doh and cards and all that sort of thing. I think she was a bit sad when 4pm came, and I had to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

David\u2019s advice to anyone considering being a ward grandparent?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole concept is fantastic \u2013 I would recommend it to anyone who\u2019s got time and loves children.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in finding out more about the ward grandparent program, you can read more and apply online at <\/em>www.rch.org.au\/volunteers\/ward-grandparents\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re interested in volunteering at the RCH, maybe a ward grandparent role is right for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":6384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6378"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6409,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378\/revisions\/6409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}