Hospital AAC
Hong Kong Hospital Communication Toolkit for Children & Adolescents
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for Supporting Children& Adolescents with Complex Communication Needs (CCN)
The Hong Kong Hospital Communication Toolkit for Children & Adolescents (Toolkit) was published on 8 December 2021 by the Child Assessment Service (CAS), Department of Health, HKSAR. This is the first locally compiled resource toolkit for use by healthcare providers in paediatric and adolescents settings, to support children with CCN who are unable or have great difficulties in communicating their medical, physical and emotional needs during hospital stay. While AAC has been used in many rehabilitation settings in the community, systematically designed AAC tools for hospital settings are still limited in Hong Kong.
The Toolkit provides a range of materials for easy application by healthcare providers in children’s and adolescents’ wards. A set of child and adolescent friendly icons and templates were developed to meet the range of needs during hospitalisation. Tools may be produced readily and repeatedly through simple application of these materials for immediate use. The icons and templates may also be further applied to construct other low tech tools or inserted into mobile devices to suit the unique needs of their patients.
The Toolkit is intended for use by healthcare providers for children and adolescents in hospital settings. Doctors, nurses and allied health colleagues of the Hospital Authority (HA) of Hong Kong can access these materials through http://hkchwss/simcentre/SitePages/CCN.aspx of the ChildSim Intranet, under file titled "CCN - Tools to be shared". Other related hospital and community healthcare providers may apply for access to these materials through completion of the attached application form. The materials from this Toolkit may be introduced to parents and teachers of children with CCN in the community through their professional staff, such as speech therapists in special schools and community outreach nurses, with the aim of familiarising children and adolescents with CCN with their use should hospitalisation be planned.
Copyright ownership of the Hospital Communication Toolkit belongs to the Department of Health, HKSAR. The soft copies and templates for making the Toolkit may be provided to relevant hospital and community healthcare providers free of charge. Potential users may contact CAS at 2246 6659 for enquiries.
Terms and Conditions
- Copyright ownership of the of the Toolkit content soft copies belongs to the Child Assessment Service (CAS), Department of Health, HKSAR.
- The Toolkit content soft copies are provided free of charge to 1) eligible institutions providing hospital healthcare and 2) healthcare professionals working in institutions or community settings serving children and adolescents with CCN.
- The Toolkit content soft copies may be freely reproduced for the purposes of designing materials, hard or electronic versions, for helping children and adolescents with CCN.
- Users shall keep good custody of the Toolkit content soft copies. No part of the toolkit is to be sold/duplicated for monetary gain. Suitable acknowledgement would be appreciated. Users shall not share the Toolkit without prior permission from CAS.
