Not every hospital has a permanent, resident writer. Sure, lots of hospitals have artist residencies but in the province of Saskatchewan, for example, no other hospital has a dedicated Healing Arts team - in our case comprised of a full-time visual artist, two music therapists, and myself - a writer. Crazy right?

 

Actually, it's crazy there aren't more of these "teams" across the province - and the country. No matter how hard frontline health care practitioners try to make patients feel "human", there is a finite amount of time and resources they have to simply "be" with a patient; listening, offering activities, sitting down and asking them to talk about themselves. 

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But we do. In fact, that's what we do. When the Grey Nuns created St. Paul's, they believed in holistic healing - that is, the healing and nurturing of the body, mind, and spirit - and that true healing extended to all three. We see and live this approach to healing every day at St. Paul's. From Marlessa, our visual artist-in-residence who invites (and wheels!) patients down to her arts studio, to Lisa, and Tinaya who share their music with patients at bedside, on 5th floor "hub", or in the studio, to myself who helps people tell their stories, find books, talk literature, even read to patients - we all find ways to beam light through the darkness and pain. And in doing so, help foster human healing through the arts.  Hence, the "healing" Arts.