CHI in Brief

Children in Hospital Ireland is a national voluntary organisation, one of Ireland's leading sick children's charities, promoting the welfare of all children in hospital regardless of illness or condition. CHI has worked for nearly 40 years promoting the emotional and developmental needs of sick children and providing play in hospital.

Play is an important part of childhood, but in hospital it has added value. Play and fun activities reassure children and help them cope with illness and hospital. It also provides them with a sense of normality and offers great opportunities to socialise with other children.

Children in Hospital Ireland also offers extensive services for parents and carers of sick children and provides an advocacy and advisory resource for planners, policymakers, the HSE and the Department of Health and Children.

The Aims of CHI:

• To promote the welfare of sick children by drawing attention to their special needs for emotional security
• To support and help parents before, during and after their child's stay in hospital??
• To increase the awareness of policy makers and others to the special needs of sick children??
• To promote the benefits of play in hospital

Children and Hospitalisation:

• Each year in Ireland there are on average over 270,000 hospital visits by children
• There are approximately 144,700 admissions to hospital
• Approx 56% of admissions were boys and 44% were girls
• 21.7% (31,412) were under 1 year olds
• 29.5% (42,618) were in the 1-4 year old group
• 19.5% (18,177) were in the 5-9 year old group
• 15.8% (22,816) were in the 10-14 age group
• 13.6% (19,680) were in the 15-16 year old group
• 74,000 child inpatients are under 5 years old and almost all go through child emergency departments in Ireland
• CHI's trained and vetted PlayWell volunteers organise games and fun activities in 18 hospitals around the country and provide more than 40,000 hours of play in hospital each year. To see the list of hospitals we operate in, please visit the volunteer groups page.

CHI welcomes all enquiries from television, radio and print media. If you require any further or more comprehensive information on the organisation and its activities, please do not hesitate to contact us.