California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, in partnership with Reimagine Well, have teamed up to provide a dynamic digital guide, offering patients and families “creative healing solutions” when the worst news strikes.
A project with the CalArts School of Theater’s innovative Experience Design track, the Healthcare by Design course is in its third year, with the class partnering with a working hospital to develop a solution to a real-world problem that confronts patients today in terms of dealing with serious health issues.
“Our clinical partners brought medical expertise to the table, and our students brought creativity,” said Roger Holzberg, professor at CalArts and creator of the curriculum taught to the Healthcare by Design students.
Palliative care is an interdisciplinary caregiving approach that focuses broadly on improving life and providing comfort to people of all ages with serious, chronic and life-threatening illnesses.
Experience design meanwhile, involves immersive place-making, experience design and the creation of story-based entertainment projects for theme parks, exhibitions, museums, theatrical presentations and other environments, according to the CalArts website.
By combining the palliative care services with the experience design class at CalArts, organizers hope to offer a more immersive, complete health service for patients, caregivers and their families.
“They are now able to create experiences and memories in ways that best support the life of the person with the life-limiting diagnosis, and keep their legacy alive for the family,” said Holzberg.
A cancer survivor for more than 15 years and CalArts Alum himself, Holzberg previously served as vice-president at Walt Disney Imagineering, and now as a CalArts professor, created the experience design in healthcare curriculum and teaches the “Healthcare By Design” class which delivers the working pilot program.
Holzberg was also the first consulting creative director at the National Cancer Institute, as well as co-founder of the company Reimagine Well, which creates immersive healing programs for hospitals and treatment centers.
The CalArts artists are all passionate about applying their creativity to make a family’s journey with a loved one — at the end of life — calmer, more fulfilling, and more supportive, with better memories for everyone who’s part of it.
“It was emotional and there were moments that were hard, because we’re hearing these patients’ stories and some of them were really tragic,” said Natalie Ferguson, CalArts theater graduate. “You have to be able to put yourself in the patients’ and the caregivers’ shoes so you can really think of what would make you feel better.”
The Healing by Design program has formulated the Life Quilt, a stand-alone interactive pdf, available here. The Life Quilt offers ideas and projects to help patients approaching the end of their lives as well as caregivers and their families a way to connect with loved ones, reduce anxiety, and come together to build a living legacy.
“I felt incredibly inspired. It was an honor to be able to utilize our creativity to help the hospital and the help the patients, said Lauren Gonzales, CalArts Dance graduate. “For me it was a really, really wonderful and really positive experience.”
This novel collaboration between clinicians at the hospital and the class has yielded a first of a kind — dynamic digital guide — offering patients and families “creative healing solutions that reduce anxiety, enable mindfulness experiences, create memories, and ease the fear of the unknown,” said Shannon Scrofano, CalArts faculty member and co-initiator of the course.
“They are now able to create experiences and memories in ways that best support the life of the person with the life-limiting diagnosis, and keep their legacy alive for the family,” said Holzberg.
Experiences include physical objects like a heritage cookbook filled with family recipes or a memory quilt made of a loved one’s clothes, as well as more technology-centered options, such as video streaming to take family members virtually to weddings and faith events, and living family trees.
“Our hope is to share this new creative experience with any family or patient who feels it would be helpful”, said Lisa Ortega, director of Outpatient Programs and Palliative Care at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.
To learn more about Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital’s palliative care program, click here.
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