Healing HeARTs Program at Nemours Children’s Hospital

hThIn partnership with the Creative Arts Therapy department at Nemours Children’s Hospital, this program provides monthly art sessions within the hospital where young patients and their caregivers can engage in various art forms to express themselves and alleviate stress. The program also provides art kits to children confined to their beds, containing materials for simple art projects to keep them engaged and spark creativity during their recovery. 

What is Creative Arts Therapy?

Even the most compassionate care can be scary and traumatic for patients and their families. Creative Arts Therapy is a way for youth staying in the hospital to express, process, communicate or just release how they feel about their healthcare experience. Creative Arts Therapy is an evidence-based health service in which the arts are used within a therapeutic relationship to support children’s mental and physical well-being. 

Studies show that art therapy, especially its creative expression, provides a safe foundation for expression of thoughts and feelings, thus facilitating recovery in times of psychological distress. Creative Arts Therapy is always meant to improve patients' experience in the hospital. It can help patients process feelings about a new diagnosis, cope with a long-term hospital stay, help patients participate in and cooperate with their treatment, rebuild self-esteem, help manage pain from a condition or procedure, and support family members in caring for their loved one in the hospital. Using art as therapy not only gives patients a creative outlet, but the process of creation allows them to better comprehend uncommon or new feelings and emotions often experienced during a hospital stay. 

Creating opportunities for children to be creative, laugh, and sometimes even be distracted from their condition is just as important as the medical interventions that they are going through.

This program is made possible through the generosity of The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation.