Ms. Paula Hicks
Centre Administrator - CIHS, Psychology

Projects

• Title
  • Solas - an interactive community for children with cancer
• Summary
  • Each year thousands of seriously ill children worldwide have to spend several weeks or even months in protective isolation with no physical interaction with the outside world and limited contact with their family. They are faced with a myriad of challenges that their healthy peers may never experience. Challenges that impact a child's ability to cope socially, emotionally, and or physically are often referred to as 'psychosocial' challenges. These include isolation, change in family dynamics, depression, withdrawal, loss of peer interaction to name but a few. These problems can hinder a child's treatment and recovery. The use of virtual communities in addressing some of these psychosocial issues has been at the core of some of the research work currently being carried out at the Centre for Health Informatics, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in collaboration with the Children's Research Centre, TCD and The National Paediatric Haematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Centre, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin. The Solas project facilitates communication (via email, sms texting, live chat and video conferencing), along with providing a variety of creative (eg. art tool, music composition) and educational tools (eg. multimedia learning games, audio books) in a customized secure environment. Solas is currently being piloted on the Childrens Cancer Unit of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, and there are over 180 registered users to date, an independent evaluation will be carried out throughout 2009. From the Needs Assessment phase it is clear that there is a need for improved psycho-social services for these children, lack of communication with peers and families and high levels of boredom have echoed throughout this work. Additional requirements beyond the initial prototype leave scope for further development.
• Funding Agency
  • Higher Education Authority (HEA)
• Date From
  • 2004
• Date To
  • ongoing

• Title
  • Physical Places and Social Spaces for young Children in Hospital
• Summary
  • This consultation process explored young children's (aged 5-8 years) perspectives of the physical and social hospital environment to ensure that the physcial places and social spaces of the proposed new Children's Hosptial of Ireland would be responsive to their needs.
• Funding Agency
  • National Paediatric Hospital Project
• Date From
  • September 2009
• Date To
  • February 2010

• Title
  • Puppet Portal Project
• Summary
  • The Puppet Portal Project is an arts and technology hospital based project which connected children, parents, artists and staff in an online community (Ait Eile, developed by the Centre for Health Informatics, Trinity College Dublin) where they worked collaboratively to design and make puppets, develop stories and perform for each other through the webportal. The aim of the project was to transform the hospital experience for children by facilitating them to access their own creativity and self expression and the benefits are very evident.
• Funding Agency
  • Health Service Executive, The Arts Council
• Date From
  • 2009
• Date To
  • 2010

• Title
  • Ait Eile - online community for children in hospital
• Summary
  • Áit Eile is an online community for children in hospital which facilitates young patients to communicate with each other via e mail, video conferencing and live chat over a secure Internet connection. Research has shown that children in hospital, especially those suffering from a chronic illness, can experience feelings of isolation, change in family dynamics, depression and loss of peer interaction. Áit Eile is based in hospitals schools throughout the country and offers the potential for hospital-to-hospital, hospital to home, hospital to school and even home-to-home connection allowing parents and children never to be more than a click away. Through the web portal the system provides access to activities and information, such as arts & crafts, educational opportunities and links to favorite web sites with appropriate content. The security of the system has been a top priority and appropriate solutions have been incorporated into the overall system design. Currently linking eleven sites throughout the country; the National Children's Hospital, in Tallaght, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Cork University Hospital, Temple Street Hospital, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Beaumont Hospital Dublin, Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh, Cork, Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, Sligo General Hospital, University College Hospital, Galway and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
• Funding Agency
  • Department of Health and Children / HSE
• Date From
  • 2001
• Date To
  • ongoing

• Title
  • Awareness Programme on the use of Information Technology in Health Care
• Summary
  • A European funded project which took the form of a multimedia presentation to raise awareness of ICT in healthcare. It was presented in 50 locations around Ireland to a pan health audience.
• Funding Agency
  • European Union
• Date From
  • 1996
• Date To
  • 1999