| When was the last time you felt relaxed in the emergency waiting room? Have you ever witnessed your doctor playing bluegrass for his patients? These scenarios are made possible by Dr. Patricia Ann Repar, who is bringing the healing power of the arts into the sterile halls of UNM Hospital. As a visiting research assistant professor in the department of music, Repar has introduced an innovative new program called Arts-in-Medicine.
The non-profit, trans-disciplinary venture brings together artists and healthcare professionals to facilitate healing in its broadest sense through creative encounters, education and support for patients, their families, healthcare professionals and the community-at-large.
The program, at the end of its second year, is inspired by Repar’s unique life experiences, which taught her the value of art and creativity in overcoming illness. The program is garnering national and international attention and Repar has been asked numerous times to tell her story.
It was during Repar’s time as a professor in Quito, Ecuador, that she fell ill. “I experienced an intense deterioration of health and felt myself to be slowly dying,” Repar recalls. She returned to Canada to recover her health and began taking courses in palliative care at Niagara College. “Palliative care, as distinct from cure, is the provision of holistic comfort measures for those suffering from chronic pain or life-threatening illness,” Repar explains.
Her experience in Ecuador, as well as the knowledge she gained from the palliative care courses, inspired Repar to explore the healing power inherent in the creative process.As a composer Repar thinks of the Arts-in-Medicine program as an ongoing, articipatory installation where artists passionately engage in creative encounters in the midst of a medical environment—ultimately transforming waiting rooms, patient rooms, medical classrooms, hospital staff rooms and the consciousness of all those who move through them. The creative encounters provide temporary relief from pain and stress, but they also stimulate long-term change in the way we think about and deal with healthcare, illness, death and dying.
Repar has spoken to several organizations about the program, including the Society for Arts in Healthcare, the National Hospice Organization and the International Congress on Care for the Terminally Ill. In addition, institutions such as the Toronto Children’s Hospital, the University of Buffalo and the University of Florida at Gainesville have sought out Repar to learn more about the healing power of the creative process.
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