The Northern Hospital in Epping is among 19 hospitals across Australia to be part of the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s innovative and interactive virtual platform designed to deliver engaging, positive distraction for sick children.
Planet Starlight will deliver happiness to hospitalised children in every hospital in Australia, especially focusing on general and regional hospitals where children’s support services can be limited.
The platform has been rolled out to patients in 19 metropolitan and regional hospitals across Australia, including the Northern Hospital in Epping, with another 20 hospitals planned by the end of the year.
Free to register and easily accessible from an internet-enabled device, Planet Starlight features daily, interactive livestreams uniquely shaped by the participation of the kids watching and hosted by Starlight’s superhero of fun, Captain Starlight.
Northern Health child and adolescent health unit associate nurse unit manager Aleks Dimitrieski said she and her team were excited to partner with Starlight and bring Planet Starlight to Melbourne’s northern community.
“Innovative digital projects such as Planet Starlight are really important for keeping the children distracted from their, sometimes scary, time in hospital,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the positive impact this has on our patients.”
Planet Starlight was first trialed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when some of the most significant restrictions in children’s healthcare required Starlight to create innovative ways to deliver essential programs to isolated, hospitalised children in any way they could.
A virtual Starlight program was designed and delivered in several hospitals, where evidence confirmed the power of a live, interactive digital platform where children led the play.
“Starlight is uniquely positioned and excited to launch Planet Starlight with a goal to reach sick kids at every hospital in Australia,” Starlight chief executive Louise Baxter said.
“Planet Starlight takes Starlight into the virtual world for hospitalised kids in need of happiness and positive distraction.
“Whenever they need it and wherever they are. Children are digital natives, so it’s no surprise Planet Starlight has really taken off.”
