The intergenerational project: creating space for play in health care

Children invite patients into play irrespective of varying degrees of cognitive impairment or physical manifestations of time in hospital, such as plaster casts or nasogastric tubes. The project also offers opportunity for professional development, allowing staff to be involved in facilitating arts workshops and educational workshops in schools, applying their skills and specialist dementia knowledge outside the traditional hospital setting. There is no blueprint for intergenerational interactions in an acute hospital setting and establishing the project involves consideration of infection control, safeguarding, and what would happen in the event of an emergency.