Creative arts in oncology

Creative therapies integrate physical, emotional, and spiritual care and enable people with cancer to respond creatively to the challenges they face. Opportunities to engage in creative expression enable people with cancer to mourn, grieve, celebrate life, be empowered to endure their situation, and find meaning in what they are experiencing. Creativity can light the pathway to well-being by generating new insights, activating inner strength, and rekindling joy. The arts facilitate communication between patients and healthcare personnel by bringing understanding and insight on the part of patients that can then be communicated to the care team, and by making it possible for patients to express things that would be impossible to put into words. In North America, some of the best known creative arts programmes are the Art for Recovery programme at the University of California in the San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Creative Journey programme at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the art programme at the Shands Cancer Hospital at the University of Florida, and the Arts in Medicine programme at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Canada.