At Parkview, we recognize the emotional stress that comes with treating a physical ailment. We created the Parkview Healing Arts program, in collaboration with Fort Wayne Dance Collective, to incorporate literary, movement, music and visual arts into the patient experience to reduce some of this mental discomfort.

“You’re giving the patient an opportunity to create something in a clinical setting,” Diane Gaby, artist with the Parkview Healing Arts, said. Diane worked with Cheryl, the patient featured in the video, to ease her time receiving cancer treatments. “If you’re absorbing a lot of clinical, analytical information, you’re using one side of your brain. You may not be getting a lot of rest or could have some sort of distress. It becomes a cycle. When you interrupt that with something that is creative, you switch and start using the other side of your brain.”

One of the aspects of the program that brings Diane the most joy is the lasting effect art can have on the men, women and children she works with.  “Patients will start to talk about art they used to create, recipes they made … These thoughts stir up happy memories that encourage them to pursue the things they enjoy doing outside of the clinical walls.”

Parkview Healing Arts is available at Parkview Regional Medical Center or Parkview Hospital Randallia. To request a visit from a Parkview Healing Arts artist, patients, families or friends can call (260) 266-HEAL (4325). Please leave a message with the patient's name and location.  You can also email Paula Bostwick, director of patient experience, Parkview Health, at paula.bostwick@parkview.com.