It was recognised that Calea needed to create Patient Support materials for children to connect and engage with the child as well as the parent and help the process of empowering the patient to understand their own condition. Hopefully these materials would also play a part in reducing any anxiety and giving them tools with which to communicate about their condition with family and friends.

We focussed initially on children between 5-10 years old who need Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN), hoping to provide educational tools on their condition, the treatment, living day to day on HPN and the Calea service. We also hoped they would help to increase understanding amongst family and friends

HPN is a complex therapy area and we wanted to create a character-led mascot that would feature in all of the stories that the children could easily relate to.

We worked with a core group of NHS paediatric professionals from across the UK who work closely with paediatric HPN patients. With them, we discussed the topics that are important for our patients, for example from the biggest challenges to going to school on HPN. Wishing to create a ‘mascot’ or character that the children could relate to, we asked paediatric patients across the UK to choose a preferred animal mascot and the Orangutan and Owl were the firm favourites, becoming our loveable Orangutan patient Rufus and our dependable Calea Nurse Olive the owl.

Patient Support Materials available

Welcome book

The Welcome book provides initial information as to what to expect when commencing HPN and the service from Calea. Designed to be as interactive as possible so the child feels involved and able to understand their treatment and their body and to have the opportunity to express their feelings when it might be difficult to.

Rufus storybooks (Rufus leaves Hospital/Rufus goes on Holiday/Rufus Goes to School)

The purpose of the storybooks is to give the children stories in which they can see themselves reflected, and start to understand the possibilities and practicalities of living a 'normal' life on HPN.

Calea paediatric website

The website is a hub containing all our 'Rufus' resources, and it has been designed with our patients in mind, using bright visuals and appropriate language.
In the 'Discover' section we have information on Enteral Nutrition (EN) and PN, how it works, how it is made and much more.
We have also created a selection of games that will help the child to become familiar with the terminology and equipment used in HPN, and here you will also find animations of the Rufus storybooks.

Rufus at Home

When we talked to patients and parents about what support was needed we became aware that there are no dolls that represent our patients. We wanted the children to have a friend like Rufus with them to cuddle or provide comfort during times when they feel sad or during their hospital treatments.

The Rufus doll is dressed as he is seen in the other campaign materials and it was important that we included his rucksack and line which is detachable. Our hope is that Rufus can also be used as an educational tool for example for the children starting school, as a prompt to discuss their needs and condition with teachers and classmates to remove stigma and allow for questions to be asked and answered.

Other activities 

To help to empower the children who required HPN and become more familiar with the treatment and service we wanted to create some ‘fun’ activity materials that they could do at any age. A colouring book, puzzle, pencil case and some stickers were created. These were sent to the children at the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 as we knew the children would be at home, missing their friends and looking for activities to keep them entertained.

Rufus app

The Rufus Games app is the latest development in our Rufus patient support materials.
There are three games on the app; Rufus Dash, Rufus Match 3, and a Colouring game. All of these games feature Rufus characters and HPN items from their feed bags to fridges.
The games are ideal to play when the child is feeding, resting or waiting for their clinic appointment. The games app is now available to download on Apple and Android devices.

The Rufus materials are available from Calea; please complete the “contact us” form if you have any questions or have a child on Calea HPN who hasn’t yet received any of the Rufus materials.