Children’s Hospice

At the entrance, you will be greeted by a large playground equipment with a ship motif.The entire facility was filled with designs that children would enjoy, giving the impression of a large children’s house.
This hospice has a white room, which is a standard environmental setting for a snoezelen room.In addition to equipment such as the bubble tube (a large glowing tube filled with water) often seen in white rooms, there was a moderately warm water bed and a massage chair.

Regarding the reason for introducing the white room to this hospice, nurse Pernilla said, “As the end of life approaches, patients gradually lose their senses such as sight and hearing. This room also allows the children to enjoy the last of their remaining senses at that time. There was even a child who died while holding this room’s side-growth (a bundle of optical fibers about two meters long). I’ll tell you about it.

In Japan, the image of the white room as an environment for calming down is widespread, but in reality, the white room can be used to awaken the senses of children who are losing their senses.

We were also told that this hospice had a Sensory Bath (a sensory room for a bath), so we visited it. At first glance, I didn’t feel that the environment was simple enough to be called a “Sensory Bath” with bubble tubes and simple lights, but as I listened to Ms. Pernilla, it turned out that it functioned as a snooze room.
Although the stimulation options were limited, the staff asked each child, “Do you want to play music, do you want to turn on the light in the bubble tube (a large tube that emits light and bubbles often used in snooze rooms), who do you want to go in with, do you want to see the outside? Do you want to see the view outside?” Before taking a bath, the staff asked the children in detail and used the bath according to their needs. With this attitude of the staff, this bath also served as a splendid snooze room.