The Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow has become the first in the UK and Ireland to have a 'gamer-in-residence' for patients to play video games with.
Steven Mair, 26, will aim to provide kids with a way to relax, reduce potential feelings of isolation and boredom, and offer a distraction during their stay on the wards.
He also plans to organise gaming-themed events in the hospital, such as a launch day celebration for EA Sports FC 25 (the successor the popular FIFA franchise) and continue to fundraise for new gaming equipment in the hospital.
The new role, fully funded by the Scottish games industry, community organisations and gaming fundraisers comes after recent medical studies demonstrated a link between playing video games and reduced feelings of anxiety in the hospital, with some even suggesting video games could reduce pain.
Read More:
-
Glasgow Children's Hospital launches 'games for weans' campaign
-
Marti Pellow puts on special performance for patients and staff at city cancer centre
Last year the Games For the Weans campaign by Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity raised more than £100,000 to buy adapted gaming equipment, consoles and video games as well as setting up the Play Team.
Catherine Reid, mother of seven-year-old Jace, said: “Children in Jace’s ward can have long stays and intense treatment plans. This can include physical pain and a lot of new emotions. Often, parents can feel helpless at times. For my son Jace in particular, he is an experienced gamer. His blood disorder prevented him from going outside or starting school.
“When the gamer-in-residence came round to play Mario on the Nintendo, he immediately lit up and smiled. It was an instant energy boost for him mentally and physically. In reality, I think often what kids want is some quality time and gaming with new friends.”
Kirsten Watson, CEO of the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity said: "Thank you to everyone across the gaming community for supporting this unique initiative to help young patients from across the country game in hospital.
"Not only will your support fund more consoles and games for the children’s hospital, but it now also means Scotland’s young patients will always have a Player Two.”
Kate Ludlow, Spec Ops at Devolver Digital, said: “We are proud to support Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity in their efforts to offer their young patients the adventures, escapism, and fun that video games provide. We look forward to continuing support for their Games for the Weans programme.”
As well as the £100,000 raised by the Games of the Weans campaign, which included £48,500 worth of gifts in kind from Neonhive and BJSS, and fundraising activities like the Dundee Kiltwalk, charity streaming and the first ever Scottish Games Sale on Steam, the service received $12,000 from American charity Child's Play which will be spent on replacing outdated Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles.
Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity is seeking new gamers and streamers to fundraise for children in hospital. The money raised will help young patients in Glasgow game during their stay on the wards.
Mr Mair can be contacted at steven.mair@gchc.scot for more information.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel