#PomagamyRazem
 

The Psychiatric Ward for Children and the Psychiatric Ward for Adolescents in Józefów near Warsaw received today (June 5, 2020) new equipment. As part of the #PomagamyRazem initiative IKEA Ingka Centers in co-operation with partners, including the Ombudsman for Children, will provide around 30,000 home furnishings with a total value of over PLN 1.6 million to 37 psychiatric wards for children and adolescents throughout  Poland.

Due to the pandemic, we have all found ourselves in a new and difficult reality. Therefore, we should remember those who need exceptional care, attention and understanding - about children and youth. Especially children, who need to be diagnosed and treated in psychiatric wards, are in a particularly difficult situation since due to the COVID 19 pandemic their contact with families was  significantly limited.
As part of the #PomagamyRazem initiative, IKEA together with the Ombudsman for Children and Ingka Centers and other partners: the Medicover Foundation, Raben Logistics Polska, the IKEA Distribution Center and FM Logistic, reaches with material help hospitals and psychiatric wards for children and adolescents throughout Poland, by passing products.
 
- Home is an extremely important space for IKEA. It should be a mainstay of security and development. Meanwhile, the coronavirus epidemic - and the long-term isolation associated with it - negatively affected the mental health of many people, including children and adolescents. We have committed ourselves as a socially responsible business, to support local communities in the difficulties arising from the effects of a pandemic. Hospital psychiatric wards are an important element of recovery for many patients, and we want children and parents to spend the necessary time in the best conditions. Therefore, #PomagamyRazem - emphasizes Katarzyna Dulko-Gaszyna, Country Sustainability Manager at IKEA Retail.

The interior furnishings, which will be transferred to hospitals, in the form of colorful bedding, comfortable mattresses, armchairs or night lights that will remove darkness will help create a more homely atmosphere for children. In addition, new toys and accessories, such as paints, easels, coloring books, books and a gym mat will allow children to have a fun time. Multimedia equipment provided by Ingka Centers Polska will help in conducting even more effective occupational therapies, and household appliances will facilitate daily functioning in branches.

- This is a great initiative and I am glad that IKEA turned to me for its support. As the Ombudsman for Children, I have long been paying attention to the difficult situation of psychiatric wards for children and youth and I am sure that material support for them from IKEA and its partners can do a lot of good. And it is even more valuable in a situation where a pandemic coronavirus is holding the world in its claws - emphasizes the Ombudsman for Children, Mikołaj Pawlak.

Home isolation associated with the COVID-19 epidemic has a negative impact on children's mental health. Often, children and young people have to deal with difficult conditions and emotions. The epidemic caused a sudden and big change in the lives of families - including children who stopped going to school and their social contacts with their friends were severely limited. Being locked up at home also intensifies other problems that children have experienced before, such as difficult contact with doctors and specialists or experiencing domestic violence.

- Staying in a child's psychiatric hospital is a difficult experience, and the child's stay in the hospital during the COVID 19 pandemic intensifies this state. Safety rules and numerous internal restrictions mean that the child rarely sees loved ones and cannot go out on a pass. Schools do not work, so there is no this therapeutically valuable ritual of leaving the ward for school. Children are doomed to even greater isolation than during their normal stay in the ward. In addition, there is a way to dress staff in protective aprons, masks and visors, and this does not create a home-like atmosphere. And in such situations, every good gesture, every gift, every warm word is precious to our patients. That is why I express my respect to IKEA and the Ombudsman for Children for a wonderful idea and undertaking that comprehensively strengthens psychiatric wards for children and restores, at least for a moment, a smile on the faces of our Little Patients. On behalf of myself, the staff and the patients, thank you very much for material support of the Mazowiecki Neuropsychiatry Center in Zagorze - says Michał Stelmański, President of the Board of the Mazowiecki Neuropsychiatry Center in Zagorz.
 
The environment in which the patients reside can have a therapeutic effect, which is why we want to create more friendly and home-like conditions for children in wards. This is now particularly important because, in connection with the epidemic threat, hospitals have introduced stricter security procedures and passes and visits are difficult. Hospitals have received about 30,000 home furnishings from IKEA and Ingka Centers Polska with a total value of over PLN 1,600,000, which will be available to over 1,000 young patients at the same time. All help is free and is an IKEA donation to institutions.

Dagmara Pozowska - Deputy Operations Manager Ingka Centers Polska, adds:
- In our activities as Ingka Centers Polska, we want to play an important role in the life of local communities. Be close to them both in joyful and difficult moments. That's why now in the time of crisis associated with the coronavirus epidemic, we do not remain passive and actively join in helping the most needy. Support for children's psychiatric wards is another initiative of shopping centers from the Ingka Group as part of the #wspierajmysie campaign, which aims to improve the mental and emotional condition of children during and after the epidemic. We are aware that problems, especially those of an emotional nature, do not disappear with the decreasing number of people infected with COVID-19. That is why we try to act long-term, remembering at the same time about the current needs of people affected in different ways in a pandemic.

Activities could not be implemented so efficiently without the support of the partners involved. The Medicover Foundation, which focuses its activities on national preventive health programs, also supports care centers by engaging its volunteers. For the second time together with IKEA #PomagamyRazem, because we believe that "Together we can do more" - says Marcin Radziwiłł - President of the Medicover Foundation. Jolanta Sawińska, Director of the Raben Logistics Polska Region, adds: We are a socially engaged company, so we have help in our DNA. We believe that transport is needed, which is why we decided without hesitation to support the operation of retrofitting children's psychiatric wards through charitable transport of goods.
 
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Poland, IKEA has been analyzing the changing social needs and trying to respond to them. The Ingka Group has decided to provide ad hoc assistance in the form of donations with a total value of PLN 4.5 million. As part of the #PomagamyRazem initiative, aimed at protecting health and providing the living resources needed for people affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the company together with partners has provided material support to institutions in need.

Over the past two months, IKEA has helped to provide equipment to Critical Infrastructure Facilities or Municipal Quarantine Centers, which were built all over Poland. Together with the Habitat for Humanity Poland Foundation, IKEA organized help for people struggling with homelessness, the poor and single mothers, by providing shelters and Help Points with IKEA products that will help protect against COVID-19.
 
In the cities where IKEA stores are located, during the period of their closing, the company got involved in the civic action #WzywamyPosiłki, in which emergency units or laboratories working for epidemic security received free meals. In the period from March 23 to May 2 this year 40,000 hot meals and IKEA products from the Swedish store went to health care workers. Activities also included the assistance of local stores, which supported neighboring hospitals by providing material assistance in the form of IKEA products.

Now, the company wants to embrace with help and support yet another social group exposed to the negative effects of the epidemic - children and young people, especially those in difficult family situations. This time is especially difficult for children experiencing violence and ill-treatment, who in extreme cases are exposed to loss of health and life. In the coming weeks, IKEA will take concrete steps to reach a wide range of children and adolescents exposed to the effects of isolation.