Support for families of children living with medical complexities
We offer support to children and young people living with medical complexities. This support extends to their immediate family including parents and siblings.
Every story is different and we offer both practical and emotional support and promise to walk side by side with a family on their journey. This includes delivering a bespoke and tailor-made support package for each family and guidance to help them navigate.
We also provide fun and therapeutic activities and the chance to make magical memories in a safe and accessible space.
Please note that Reuben’s Retreat is not a Children’s Hospice and as such we are not able to provide clinical care or respite breaks.
Please take a look at some of the services we provide below:
Support Groups
Our peer support groups help to bring children and parents together so that they can share similar experiences. These groups help families to feel at home in a safe space and allow them to feel accepted and understood.
Counselling & Talking Therapies
Talking therapies can help families to share fears and anxieties and work out how to deal with negative thoughts and feelings.
Activity & Family Fun Days
We organise a range of family fun days throughout the year to help families create magical memories in an accessible space where then can be celebrated for being unique.
Wellbeing Support
We offer a range of wellbeing and holistic support sessions throughout the year, including reiki, yoga and meditation. These all help families to relax and recharge.
Practical Advice
We also offer practical advice from trusted professionals and solicitors such as help navigating the social welfare system. This includes offering advice on benefits and legal advice.
Swimming Sessions
Our activity wing opened in September 2021 and boasts a hydro-pool which allows for children living with medical complexities to experience swimming with their families.
Who we support
We support children and young people living with medical complexities aswell as their parents and siblings.
Our criteria for taking new referrals are that the child must be below the age of 18 and have been diagnosed with a life-threatening or shortening condition according to NICE Guidelines:
Group 1
Life threatening conditions for which curative treatment may be feasible but can fail (E.g. cancer, irreversible organ failures of heart, liver, kidneys).
Group 2
Conditions where premature death is inevitable (E.g. cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy).
Group 3
Progressive conditions without curative treatment options (E.g. Batten disease, mucopolysaccharidoses).
Group 4
Irreversible but non-progressive conditions causing severe disability leading to susceptibility to health (E.g. Severe cerebral palsy, multiple disabilities such as following brain or spinal cord injury).