Home and In-Hospital Art Therapy Program
OBJECTIVE
To improve the quality of life and provide emotional support to patients and their families. Through art, we seek to relieve stress, pain and anxiety, allowing children to communicate their emotions and experiences in a non-verbal way.
RELEVANCE
To be able to offer a unique form of emotional expression and support to children facing serious illness and their families by allowing them to communicate their feelings, fears and thoughts in a non-verbal way, which can be especially helpful when words are insufficient or overwhelming.
STATUS AND SCOPE
ACTIVE
The program is developed at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.
PROJECT START: 2023
BUDGET
12,320 € per year
Dr. Andrés Morgenstern, Head of the Comprehensive Pediatric Palliative Care Unit, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.
"As a team made up of health professionals, there are many situations where we feel that we can no longer provide care that responds to the suffering and needs that families experience and feel. Integrating these workshops allows us to create a space where they can feel like a family, and where the little ones can feel like children again, regardless of their condition."
ART THERAPY AT VALL D'HEBRON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Asociación Benéfica Anita and Vall d'Hebron University Hospital have established a collaboration agreement with the Kalyan Association to carry out the art therapy workshop for patients of the Comprehensive Pediatric Palliative Care Unit.
In collaboration with Asociación Kalyan: Psicología, Arte y Bienestar, Asociación Benéfica Anita implemented in March 2023 the "Art Therapy at Home" project that uses the arts as therapy for children and teenagers with advanced diseases and their families, cared for by the Comprehensive Pediatric Palliative Care Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona.
Art therapy is a transdisciplinary psychotherapy focused on the creative process, which facilitates the emotional integration of the experience. Through artistic creations, patients can make an emotional and spiritual journey, saying goodbye to their loved ones in peace before they die.
Dr. Andres Morgenstern, Head of the Unit, stresses the importance of fostering these artistic expressions in children during the final stage of their lives. He states that the arts can provide answers to the suffering that both patients and their families experience, allowing them to connect with their inner world. The integration of these workshops creates a space where families can feel welcomed, and children can regain their sense of childhood, regardless of their medical condition. It also allows them to enhance their cognitive, physical, social, emotional and spiritual capacities through art and music, in an environment of emotional support and well-being for both them and their families during this delicate stage.
The Asociación Anita will finance this activity, which will be carried out by Nuria Mompín, Health Psychologist, Psycho-oncologist and Art Therapist of the Kalyan Association, both on the hospital floor and in patients' homes. She will also conduct self-care sessions for the staff of the palliative care team of the hospital as well as Sant Joan de Déu's hospital, with the aim of improving the well-being and emotional management of health professionals through artistic expression and creativity.
ART THERAPY
This project focuses on providing emotional support using the therapeutic power of the arts. It employs various artistic forms to stimulate creativity and communication, with the purpose of accompanying, exploring and improving the psycho-emotional and spiritual well-being of patients, helping them to express, identify and regulate emotions, which in turn contributes to improving mood and reducing anxiety and stress, among other aspects.
The therapeutic use of the arts in the field of child and teenager health refers to the use of various artistic languages such as painting, music, dramatization with puppets, writing, storytelling and corporal expression. This aims to have a positive impact on the psycho-emotional aspects of children and teenagers facing serious illnesses, as well as on their environment. It is intended that, gradually and progressively, they get in touch with their inner self, to find a way of greater well-being and quality of life, thus reducing their emotional suffering and the great impact that the situation inevitably generates in them.
