Aberdeen University
Paediatric Society
Charlie House
What is Charlie House?
Charlie House is a new, locally based children’s charity which engages in activities and projects to support children with complex disabilities and life limiting conditions.
Our current projects include:
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Activities: Monthly Activity Club, Siblings Club, Activity Short Break, Coffee mornings and more
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Information: Online Family Community and new website coming soon
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Community Team: Community Nurse currently in post with additional nurses and Support Workers coming soon
Plans for the near future include the expansion of the Charlie House Community Team. The team will consist of Children’s Nurses to provide support for children diagnosed with a life-limiting condition and their families. The Nurses will help the children and their families transition from hospital to home, follow up with the children once settled in at home and provide practical information and support during a very difficult period. The Community Team will also be able to support the child and their family throughout their life journey.
Public funds raised will support the provision of our current and short-term projects.
The charity is also working on a longer-term project to build a much-needed specialist care facility for this group of children and their families.
Why do we need Charlie House?
Recent research has shown that there are more than 1500 children and young people with life-limiting conditions in the North-east, with numbers rising by 50% in the last 10 years. These families need our support more than ever.
Children with complex disabilities, medical needs and/or life-limiting conditions, more often than not, experience a degree of social exclusion as they are not able to take part in everyday activities that others their age can. They have limited opportunities for making friends, enjoying activities and having fun.
Our current projects aim to provide a place for the whole family to have some fun together and experience new activities. Since 2014, our annual trip to The Calvert Trust at Kielder Forest Park in 2014 has been a huge success and enabled families to feel less isolated, gave them courage to try new activities that they had previously thought impossible for their child to do and gave them a new sense of adventure.