Open AccessLive Well, Die Well: The Development of an Online, Arts-Based Palliative Care Programme in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Amanda Roberts
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1541-3764
pISSN - 0030-2228
DOI - 10.1177/00302228211009753
Subject(s) - the arts , shadow (psychology) , palliative care , identity (music) , covid-19 , medicine , peer support , pandemic , psychology , nursing , visual arts , psychotherapist , aesthetics , art , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
The Covid-19 crisis led to an increase in the ‘total pain’ of many terminally ill patients who faced a reduction in support, due to the temporary closure of front-line palliative day therapy services. A hospice volunteer, I instigated an online day therapy programme for patients previously attending face-to-face day therapy. Participant feedback revealed the importance of providing a space for ongoing peer support for participants’ changing sense of identity, an issue for time-limited day therapy programmes. An exploration of key concepts associated with palliative care established the multiple connections between such changing identity and arts-based approaches to living well. This article charts how I used this understanding to develop an alternative, online arts-based support programme, Live well, die well. It explores the links between ongoing mutual support, arts-based activity and the reactions to a shifting identity in patients with a life-limiting illness.