Explore Play Wales
To mark Play in Healthcare Week 2025, Starlight Children’s Foundation has lauched a new report that reveals how being held down for medical procedures can cause lasting trauma for children, and how play can prevent it. The report is based on surveys with children, parents and healthcare professionals.
The Causes of Trauma from Children’s Healthcare report highlights that there is a growing body of evidence that shows an increased risk of children developing mental health problems because of the trauma they have experienced from their healthcare.
Starlight’s evidence shows that having access to play and health play professionals is the most effective way to safeguard children against medical trauma and other mental health conditions associated with healthcare settings and treatment. Health play has lots of benefits, including:
- supporting children to regain a sense of control and autonomy
- reduced anxiety and fear and helping children cope with stress
- supporting quicker recovery after treatment.
Starlight is calling for the value of play to be recognised and embedded into every child’s healthcare and resourced accordingly. For play to be truly embedded into children’s healthcare, the charity makes a number of calls, such as:
- Give parents and carers clear, accessible information on why play matters in healthcare and how health play services support their child.
- Equip all multi-disciplinary paediatric teams with training in the core elements of therapeutic play.
- Strengthen the health play profession by embedding the workforce into NHS workforce plans.
Dr Krutika Pau, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Children’s Services at Starlight said:
‘Play can transform a hospital room or a visit to the dentist into a space of comfort and some control, turning scary and painful procedures into manageable experiences. Play truly has the power to prevent trauma and improve outcomes for children, their families, healthcare professionals and health services, in the short and long term … Our research shows play prevents trauma in healthcare.’