Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media - Catherine Martin recently visited LauraLynn Children’s Hospice to learn more about their Therapeutic Creative Arts Programme for children with life-limiting conditions and their families.
LauraLynn run several creative art initiatives for those who avail of their services. Previous and on-going creative art initiatives have included: The LauraLynn Oscars, a Riverdance partnership, LauraLynn at The Abbey and a LauraLynn collaboration with The National Gallery of Ireland.
Minister Catherine Martin said: "It was an honour to visit LauraLynn today and learn about their Therapeutic Creative Arts Programme. Getting to meet and hear first-hand from the children and families how the programme benefits them was truly inspiring. It was also wonderful to meet with some of the team and hear about all of the important work they do caring for and supporting children with life-limiting conditions and their families across the country."
Enabling the children and families of LauraLynn to access and participate in the arts, regardless of their highly complex challenges, is very important to LauraLynn. The programme ensures equal access to the arts for children of all abilities.
One Mum whose son participated in the LauraLynn Oscars commented: "With children like ours, we will never experience many 'firsts' like many families do, their first meal, their first sentence, growing up, their first date...so days like this are a dream come true, days like today are the treasures we need, that we will hold forever, the fact we could invite family to come and experience the wonder and magic of my son, is worth so much to us and we will be forever grateful."
Facilitated legacy-making in paediatric palliative care improves quality-of-life. The creative arts programme at LauraLynn gives the opportunity for memory making for families who are caring for children with a life-limiting illness.
The team at LauraLynn were delighted to welcome Minister Martin and would like to thank her for taking the time to visit and learn about all the incredible work happening in their Therapeutic Creative Arts Programme.
