Ed Deborah Kirklin & Ruth Richardson (Royal College of Physicians 2003,
ISBN 1-86016-191-X, £15 [£19.10 incl p&p*])
The Healing Environment is an inspiring collection of papers written by many of the leading exponents of the arts in healthcare movement. Covering a range of art forms from architecture to patient care, it provides fascinating reading and examples of good practice in hospitals, in the community and in mental health programmes. It offers readers, be they clinicians, managers, patients or carers, the opportunity to explore the healing environment, with information about groundbreaking partnerships and latest developments and thinking in the area from medical practitioners and artists alike. Although it?s hard to single out just one paper in the collection, one which brings us bang up-to-date is a report on a ground-breaking three-year research programme undertaken by scientist Rosalia Staricoff and art historian Susan Loppert on behalf of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts. It challenges conventional approaches to healthcare by rigorously measuring the impact of art in hospitals using scientific methodology. With clinical evidence from physiological measurements and statistics so valued by the medical world it aims to justify the existence of art in a variety of hospital settings.
It is particularly pertinent that this compilation of papers is published by The Royal College of Physicians and sponsored by The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England ? signs of truly joined-up thinking and the recognition of what (hopefully) is fast becoming a multi-faceted discipline.
Review by Georgie Goddard, a freelance arts project coordinator and NHS Healthcare practitioner.
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