So I've been reading a lot of papers and articles about art therapy these past couple days and they've all been filled with a ton of statistics and data. As much as the artsy side of me would like to stray away from these cold numbers and labels, the sciency side of me realizes that a good research project has some sort of order to it.
So I want to share with you all a chart that Ms. Endreson gave to me a few weeks ago. It was created by Sharon Sousa, the Associate Dean at the College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. I went ahead and embellished it a bit with some colors to show you how it relates to the work we do at Bridges.
Patients are admitted to Bridges when they are in the red zone of the chart and are discharged when they are somewhere around the green zone (some characteristic vary from person to person). When I observe group and art therapy sessions, I pay particular attention to the social skills category as well as patients' facial expressions, speech, and interest in others.
I hope this helps a bit to explain what exactly I'm thinking about and what goals we're trying to reach. I'll try to keep a healthy balance of fun artwork pictures and helpful charts in the future.
Tia
Tia, this is really cool. Do you guys evaluate where the patients are merely through observation, then?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Daria! Right after therapy sessions, I really do only have time to observe the patients so that's the way we can evaluate. But, in the long run, the patients have meetings with their doctors and other workers in the ward. They also fill out a questionnaire sort of thing when they are closer to being discharged which covers a lot of the observations you see in the chart.
ReplyDeleteHi my name is Cayley, and I go to Lutheran High School in Parker, Colorado. I love what you are doing, personally I think art is a great outlet. It's very cool that you get the opportunity to work with Doctors at a hospital doing hands on work with patients. I just have one question. What has been your favorite part of this experience? Awesome work!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Cayley! Thanks so much for your interest in my project! I think my favorite part of the experience so far has been meeting the patients and seeing what each one has to offer. I've learned that art therapy is very individualized and it's really interesting to see how art brings out different sides of different people. I am touched by the fact that the patients allow me to sit in with them while they share very personal things in both our group and art therapy sessions.
DeleteThis chart looks quite similar to a range of psychological classifications that psychologists use to determine the severity of their client's disorder. However, just as some popular media sources have shown, sometimes the severity can be fought by one's own mind. Do you find that to be true or is it necessary for them to try working with you at least?
ReplyDelete