Monday, January 30, 2012
Veterans Information--Orange County
Major THR Story/Profile 1.29.12 on unusually high unemployment rates.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Summary of 2009-10 Arts and Healthcare program
Experienced Orange County and regional artists from various disciplines are working in a seminar on the Arts and Healthcare. A combination of think tank and field research, the seminar develops the artist’s knowledge and experience in new approaches to programming in arts and healthcare, particularly in services to veterans.
•Ten 3-hour seminars on Mondays starting November 9th. From 6pm-9pm; Pot Luck Dinner (bring food to share).
•Most meetings are at the Seligmann Homestead, Sugar Loaf, NY Each meeting has three elements: a presentation by facilitator, a guest presentation or off-site visit and a participating artist presentation.
•John Cimino, of Creative Leaps International, is the facilitator.
•Guest Presenters may include: Robin Glazer, of the CreativeCenter, New York City, counselors at the VetCenter, Middletown, NY, workshop leaders of the Orange County Arts Council’s Vets Write Program and other regional .
•Contact is maintained in the seminars and through a dedicated Facebook site. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155585064302&ref=nf
•Artists are expected to research and share contemporary aspects of arts, healing and healthcare and develop a project. OrangeCounty (only) artists will be paid a $100 stipend if at least 90% of meetings and requirements are completed.
•All artists will present work at annual Vet’s Picnic in May, 2010 and artists in the program can work in the Arts for Vets program
•Orange County healthcare experts and administrators are especially encouraged to participate and help shape this program.
•Artists should join Facebook, the Arts in Healthcare Group, look at information at the following websites and send comments to the Facebook
Seminar Goals/Tasks:
A. PERSONAL
1. Forming a Learning Community/Support Group of others working in arts and healing
2. Clarifying our sense of purpose, identifying our clients and what matters most: eg. joy, renewal, recapturing memories; what we bring and what we are prepared to do; Evolving questions, answers and ideas; What do we (each of us) know and what do we want to know?
3. Identifying our own learning curves and how we move forward as a learning community;
4. Envisioning directions of growth for ourselves
B. BUILDING A TOOLBOX of Approaches/Exercises for field work.
1. QUOTE EXCHANGE : select, swap, discuss as intro of self to group
2. Use VISUAL EXPLORER Visual thinking exercises, frame question, select picture, present
3. Working with PERSONAL ART OBJECTS Guidelines for Sharing and Facilitation (see 11/16/09)
4. INVITATION TO MOVEMENT by Linda Mensch...rousing the sleeping dancer in us all (see 11/23/09)
5. Describe an AH HA EXPERIENCE
6. MAKING CARDS as way of expressing interior life (see 1/04)
7. ICEBREAKER Exercises: (see 1/11)
8. COLLAGE/ASSEMBLAGE work (see 1/18)
C. INFORMATION/RESOURCES:
1. Acquainting ourselves with new work in life-long learning, spirituality and health: books, people, articles, web sites, organizations,
2. Learn about current and predicted funding trends in arts and Healthcare;
3. Outside presenters: 11/23 Pat Quinn, art therapist; Robin Glazer, The Creative Center, Mary Makofske, Vets Write, Don Sargent, Vets Center, Patty Reitkopf, Hospital Audiences
PARTICIPANT COMMENTS and RESPONSES What information and skills are you wanting?:Better understanding of opportunities for doing arts in institutional healthcare settings
Are there grants? Foundations interested in such a field? Funding Source
Better understanding of the powers of arts and healing.
With so many people needing basic healthcare, why are we even talking about expressive arts?
What skills will healthcare agencies expect of artists they might want to work with?"
Workshops developed and offered (April, 2010):
DRAGON on the HILL, brush painting, Ron Gee
MAKING FELTED BRACELETS, Gar Wang making (and taking) felted bracelets
ORIGAMI LARGE and small., Rob Gulick
SILK PAINTING watch or participate in making silk murals for SoC House, Courtni Hale
WEAVING: Community and personal looms. Peg Kimple
FLY a KITE! Glenn Carter with 40 kites available to decorate and fly
MURAL in NATURE with muds and charcoal Janet Fastta and Heidi Lanino
PORCH MURAL, Mark Stanciweicz working on a mural for the SoC front porch
MANDALA MAKING making geometries with leaves, grasses in Nature
WHAT IS QI GONG? Gar Wang
MAKING HAND PRINTS, Janet Fatta
PLAY a DRUM! few drums for a drumming circle if appropriate
COLOR with NATURE with nature colors and leaves from the Park. Laurie Seeman
MUSIC! Banjo and the Dancing Dan percussion dolls Dottie and Chris Brune
STORYTELLER: Julia Morris, Greenwood Lake, NY jusiem@aol.com 917 903 7239
MOVEMENT/DANCE Linda Mensch, Warwick, NY
ART, Mary Sealfon
DRAMA, Paul Ellis, Melanie Gold
•Ten 3-hour seminars on Mondays starting November 9th. From 6pm-9pm; Pot Luck Dinner (bring food to share).
•Most meetings are at the Seligmann Homestead, Sugar Loaf, NY Each meeting has three elements: a presentation by facilitator, a guest presentation or off-site visit and a participating artist presentation.
•John Cimino, of Creative Leaps International, is the facilitator.
•Guest Presenters may include: Robin Glazer, of the CreativeCenter, New York City, counselors at the VetCenter, Middletown, NY, workshop leaders of the Orange County Arts Council’s Vets Write Program and other regional .
•Contact is maintained in the seminars and through a dedicated Facebook site. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155585064302&ref=nf
•Artists are expected to research and share contemporary aspects of arts, healing and healthcare and develop a project. OrangeCounty (only) artists will be paid a $100 stipend if at least 90% of meetings and requirements are completed.
•All artists will present work at annual Vet’s Picnic in May, 2010 and artists in the program can work in the Arts for Vets program
•Orange County healthcare experts and administrators are especially encouraged to participate and help shape this program.
•Artists should join Facebook, the Arts in Healthcare Group, look at information at the following websites and send comments to the Facebook
Seminar Goals/Tasks:
A. PERSONAL
1. Forming a Learning Community/Support Group of others working in arts and healing
2. Clarifying our sense of purpose, identifying our clients and what matters most: eg. joy, renewal, recapturing memories; what we bring and what we are prepared to do; Evolving questions, answers and ideas; What do we (each of us) know and what do we want to know?
3. Identifying our own learning curves and how we move forward as a learning community;
4. Envisioning directions of growth for ourselves
B. BUILDING A TOOLBOX of Approaches/Exercises for field work.
1. QUOTE EXCHANGE : select, swap, discuss as intro of self to group
2. Use VISUAL EXPLORER Visual thinking exercises, frame question, select picture, present
3. Working with PERSONAL ART OBJECTS Guidelines for Sharing and Facilitation (see 11/16/09)
4. INVITATION TO MOVEMENT by Linda Mensch...rousing the sleeping dancer in us all (see 11/23/09)
5. Describe an AH HA EXPERIENCE
6. MAKING CARDS as way of expressing interior life (see 1/04)
7. ICEBREAKER Exercises: (see 1/11)
8. COLLAGE/ASSEMBLAGE work (see 1/18)
C. INFORMATION/RESOURCES:
1. Acquainting ourselves with new work in life-long learning, spirituality and health: books, people, articles, web sites, organizations,
2. Learn about current and predicted funding trends in arts and Healthcare;
3. Outside presenters: 11/23 Pat Quinn, art therapist; Robin Glazer, The Creative Center, Mary Makofske, Vets Write, Don Sargent, Vets Center, Patty Reitkopf, Hospital Audiences
PARTICIPANT COMMENTS and RESPONSES What information and skills are you wanting?:Better understanding of opportunities for doing arts in institutional healthcare settings
Are there grants? Foundations interested in such a field? Funding Source
Better understanding of the powers of arts and healing.
With so many people needing basic healthcare, why are we even talking about expressive arts?
What skills will healthcare agencies expect of artists they might want to work with?"
Workshops developed and offered (April, 2010):
DRAGON on the HILL, brush painting, Ron Gee
MAKING FELTED BRACELETS, Gar Wang making (and taking) felted bracelets
ORIGAMI LARGE and small., Rob Gulick
SILK PAINTING watch or participate in making silk murals for SoC House, Courtni Hale
WEAVING: Community and personal looms. Peg Kimple
FLY a KITE! Glenn Carter with 40 kites available to decorate and fly
MURAL in NATURE with muds and charcoal Janet Fastta and Heidi Lanino
PORCH MURAL, Mark Stanciweicz working on a mural for the SoC front porch
MANDALA MAKING making geometries with leaves, grasses in Nature
WHAT IS QI GONG? Gar Wang
MAKING HAND PRINTS, Janet Fatta
PLAY a DRUM! few drums for a drumming circle if appropriate
COLOR with NATURE with nature colors and leaves from the Park. Laurie Seeman
MUSIC! Banjo and the Dancing Dan percussion dolls Dottie and Chris Brune
STORYTELLER: Julia Morris, Greenwood Lake, NY jusiem@aol.com 917 903 7239
MOVEMENT/DANCE Linda Mensch, Warwick, NY
ART, Mary Sealfon
DRAMA, Paul Ellis, Melanie Gold
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Profile of homecoming veterans
This is from The Week of January 27, 2012
A tough homecoming for war veterans: Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are returning home with unprecedented physical and mental wounds.
What challenges do new veterans face?
More than 2.3 million soldiers have served in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade, and official fatality and casualty numbers — 6,179 dead, 47,000 wounded — fail to capture the extensive physical and psychological injuries many of them have suffered. The Veterans Administration has treated more than 210,000 veterans of those wars for post-traumatic stress disorder, but acknowledges a much larger epidemic, since the stigma of mental-health problems prevents many of them from seeking help. Vets are also returning to marriages and families strained or broken by multiple deployments, few employment opportunities, and a country largely oblivious to the wars in which they served, heightening their feelings of loneliness and alienation. "It's harder coming home than leaving — anyone will tell you that," says Col. Michael Gaal, who served in Iraq.
What kinds of wounds have they suffered?
Wounded soldiers are far more likely to come home alive today than in past wars, thanks to advances in combat medicine, faster evacuations, and better body armor. In Vietnam, 2.6 soldiers survived their wounds for every battlefield death; in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ratio is 16 to 1. But that means thousands are returning with catastrophic injuries, such as double and triple amputations and debilitating spinal cord damage, and they need special, long-term care. The use of improvised explosive devices by insurgents has caused a huge increase in traumatic brain injuries, widely considered the "signature injury" of these wars, with at least 218,000 cases diagnosed over the past decade.
What are traumatic brain injuries?
They range from penetrating head wounds to concussions sustained through exposure to massive bomb blasts. Diagnosis can be difficult; blast waves can cause micro-concussions that damage brain cells even of soldiers who are not counted among the wounded. "There are combat wounds you can see, and others that are invisible until symptoms develop," says clinical psychologist Barbara Van Dahlen. Even mild brain injuries can lead to a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional problems, including difficulty concentrating, memory loss, and depression. Symptoms often overlap with those of PTSD, making it hard to determine whether soldiers are suffering a psychological problem, a brain injury, or both.
Are these problems widespread?
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America estimates that nearly one in three recent vets — or more than 700,000 of them — suffers from PTSD, depression, or brain injury. Blackouts, flashbacks, night terrors, and sudden rages are common among veterans; suicide, alcoholism, and drug use have surged. PTSD has been cited as a factor in many acts of vets running amok, such as this month's killing of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger by a 24-year-old Iraq returnee. Since PTSD symptoms can emerge long after service ends, fallout from the disorder is likely to increase. "When you look at the epidemic of PTSD, you see the future," says Harvard professor Linda Bilmes.
Are vets getting the help they need?
Many are not. "No one was really prepared for the number of seriously wounded survivors," says Dr. Ronald Glasser, the author of a book on battlefield medicine. Wounded veterans have swamped the VA system, leading to a backlog of almost 900,000 disability claims. Vets complain of a burdensome bureaucracy, lost paperwork, redundant medical exams, and inconsistent diagnoses. "You fight for your country, then come home and have to fight against your own country for the benefits you were promised," said Clay Hunt, a Marine sniper who was shot in the wrist in Iraq, and had to wait 10 months for disability checks. Depressed, divorced, and haunted by the loss of several close friends in battle, Hunt killed himself last March.
What will their long-term care cost?
Hundreds of billions of dollars. Studies show that the cost of health-care and disability payments for veterans of past wars did not peak until decades after the last bullet was fired. The peak year for paying out disability claims to World War I veterans was 1969, and care costs for Vietnam vets have not yet crested. Because of the high survival rates and the many cases of PTSD and brain injuries, it's been estimated that the medical and disability costs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans over the next 40 years could reach $930 billion.
Are returning vets getting jobs?
Many find that their old jobs have disappeared, or that potential employers are skeptical about the value of their military service. Unemployment among recent vets is 13.1 percent, compared with the national level of 8.5 percent. One in three vets between the ages of 18 and 24 — many of whom had scant education or work experience when they deployed — is now jobless, twice the rate for non-vets of the same age range. "The spike in new veteran unemployment should be a serious wake-up call for the country," says Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The tide of war might be receding, but the surge home is just really beginning."
A new kind of wound
Marine Lt. Col. Mike Zacchea took shrapnel in his shoulder during the battle of Fallujah, but only back home in Long Island, N.Y., did he realize he'd also sustained invisible wounds. "I thought I was just going to pick up my life where I left off," he says. "That was a mistake." He didn't speak to anyone for the first six months at home. One night he set his bathroom door on fire after mistaking his wife, who was locked inside, for an insurgent. Doctors said Zacchea probably suffered from traumatic brain injury, but the plight of vets like him is still poorly understood. Four years ago the military was ordered to test every service member's brain before and after deployment. But the $42 million effort, plagued by faulty tests and poor administration, has yielded little new insight. "We have failed soldiers," says retired Col. Mary Lopez, who once oversaw the program. "I can see firsthand the soldiers that we've missed, the soldiers that have not been treated, not been identified, misdiagnosed. And then they struggle."
Jan 25, 2012 The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 while serving in the United States armed forces. At least 20 percent of servicewomen and one percent of men - an estimated 500,000 troops - have experienced sexual trauma while serving.
These troubling statistics motivated documentarian Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering to make "The Invisible War," a film that examines the epidemic of rape within the military, how it affects victims and why so few cases are prosecuted.
Through interviews with rape survivors and military officials, "The Invisible War" suggests that it's not just the violence and harassment that traumatizes victims, but the absence of impartial justice and personal retaliation they often experience after reporting the incident. A rape survivor's only judicial recourse is to report the attack to her commander - even if he was the attacker - and it's his decision whether to investigate and prosecute, regardless of the evidence.
"If they investigate it, and the investigator comes back and says, 'I've got a slam-dunk case. I can put this serial perpetrator behind bars,' the commander can, on his or her own, decide no, we're not going to send this case to court martial," Dick said.
A 2009 study shows that only eight percent of military sex offenders are prosecuted.
"The Invisible War" introduces viewers to Kori Cioca, who left the Coast Guard after being beaten and raped by her supervisor. Five years later, she still suffers from post-traumatic stress and has yet to receive Veterans Administration approval for the surgery she needs to repair the injuries she suffered during the attack. The perpetrator, who continues to serve in the Coast Guard, hit her so hard that he permanently dislocated her jaw.
Viewers also meet Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant Ariana Klay, who served in Iraq before being gang-raped by a senior officer and his friend while stationed at the elite Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. Klay's husband, also a Marine, cried as he described his concern and fear that his wife would commit suicide.
Other rape survivors shown in the film, including Cioca, say they also contemplated suicide.
Hannah Sewell, who comes from a military family, said she has trouble convincing herself that she is still a virgin after being raped while serving in the Navy. Her father, wearing his own military uniform, recounts the story through tears.
Dick and Ziering traveled the country to interview some 70 survivors of military rape.
"We weren't really ready for all the stories we heard," Ziering said. "Each one had a lot of similarities and all were equally horrific."
But the filmmakers say they remained optimistic throughout the project and have been gratified by the film's reception at Sundance, where politicians such as Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio attended the premiere. Grammy winner Mary J. Blige has also pledged to write an original song for the film.
"Our great hope was and continues to be that capturing (survivors') experience and their trauma will help change things for hundreds of thousands of men and women who are in the armed forces," Dick said.
www.invisiblewarmovie.com
A tough homecoming for war veterans: Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are returning home with unprecedented physical and mental wounds.
What challenges do new veterans face?
More than 2.3 million soldiers have served in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade, and official fatality and casualty numbers — 6,179 dead, 47,000 wounded — fail to capture the extensive physical and psychological injuries many of them have suffered. The Veterans Administration has treated more than 210,000 veterans of those wars for post-traumatic stress disorder, but acknowledges a much larger epidemic, since the stigma of mental-health problems prevents many of them from seeking help. Vets are also returning to marriages and families strained or broken by multiple deployments, few employment opportunities, and a country largely oblivious to the wars in which they served, heightening their feelings of loneliness and alienation. "It's harder coming home than leaving — anyone will tell you that," says Col. Michael Gaal, who served in Iraq.
What kinds of wounds have they suffered?
Wounded soldiers are far more likely to come home alive today than in past wars, thanks to advances in combat medicine, faster evacuations, and better body armor. In Vietnam, 2.6 soldiers survived their wounds for every battlefield death; in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ratio is 16 to 1. But that means thousands are returning with catastrophic injuries, such as double and triple amputations and debilitating spinal cord damage, and they need special, long-term care. The use of improvised explosive devices by insurgents has caused a huge increase in traumatic brain injuries, widely considered the "signature injury" of these wars, with at least 218,000 cases diagnosed over the past decade.
What are traumatic brain injuries?
They range from penetrating head wounds to concussions sustained through exposure to massive bomb blasts. Diagnosis can be difficult; blast waves can cause micro-concussions that damage brain cells even of soldiers who are not counted among the wounded. "There are combat wounds you can see, and others that are invisible until symptoms develop," says clinical psychologist Barbara Van Dahlen. Even mild brain injuries can lead to a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional problems, including difficulty concentrating, memory loss, and depression. Symptoms often overlap with those of PTSD, making it hard to determine whether soldiers are suffering a psychological problem, a brain injury, or both.
Are these problems widespread?
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America estimates that nearly one in three recent vets — or more than 700,000 of them — suffers from PTSD, depression, or brain injury. Blackouts, flashbacks, night terrors, and sudden rages are common among veterans; suicide, alcoholism, and drug use have surged. PTSD has been cited as a factor in many acts of vets running amok, such as this month's killing of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger by a 24-year-old Iraq returnee. Since PTSD symptoms can emerge long after service ends, fallout from the disorder is likely to increase. "When you look at the epidemic of PTSD, you see the future," says Harvard professor Linda Bilmes.
Are vets getting the help they need?
Many are not. "No one was really prepared for the number of seriously wounded survivors," says Dr. Ronald Glasser, the author of a book on battlefield medicine. Wounded veterans have swamped the VA system, leading to a backlog of almost 900,000 disability claims. Vets complain of a burdensome bureaucracy, lost paperwork, redundant medical exams, and inconsistent diagnoses. "You fight for your country, then come home and have to fight against your own country for the benefits you were promised," said Clay Hunt, a Marine sniper who was shot in the wrist in Iraq, and had to wait 10 months for disability checks. Depressed, divorced, and haunted by the loss of several close friends in battle, Hunt killed himself last March.
What will their long-term care cost?
Hundreds of billions of dollars. Studies show that the cost of health-care and disability payments for veterans of past wars did not peak until decades after the last bullet was fired. The peak year for paying out disability claims to World War I veterans was 1969, and care costs for Vietnam vets have not yet crested. Because of the high survival rates and the many cases of PTSD and brain injuries, it's been estimated that the medical and disability costs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans over the next 40 years could reach $930 billion.
Are returning vets getting jobs?
Many find that their old jobs have disappeared, or that potential employers are skeptical about the value of their military service. Unemployment among recent vets is 13.1 percent, compared with the national level of 8.5 percent. One in three vets between the ages of 18 and 24 — many of whom had scant education or work experience when they deployed — is now jobless, twice the rate for non-vets of the same age range. "The spike in new veteran unemployment should be a serious wake-up call for the country," says Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The tide of war might be receding, but the surge home is just really beginning."
A new kind of wound
Marine Lt. Col. Mike Zacchea took shrapnel in his shoulder during the battle of Fallujah, but only back home in Long Island, N.Y., did he realize he'd also sustained invisible wounds. "I thought I was just going to pick up my life where I left off," he says. "That was a mistake." He didn't speak to anyone for the first six months at home. One night he set his bathroom door on fire after mistaking his wife, who was locked inside, for an insurgent. Doctors said Zacchea probably suffered from traumatic brain injury, but the plight of vets like him is still poorly understood. Four years ago the military was ordered to test every service member's brain before and after deployment. But the $42 million effort, plagued by faulty tests and poor administration, has yielded little new insight. "We have failed soldiers," says retired Col. Mary Lopez, who once oversaw the program. "I can see firsthand the soldiers that we've missed, the soldiers that have not been treated, not been identified, misdiagnosed. And then they struggle."
Jan 25, 2012 The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 while serving in the United States armed forces. At least 20 percent of servicewomen and one percent of men - an estimated 500,000 troops - have experienced sexual trauma while serving.
These troubling statistics motivated documentarian Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering to make "The Invisible War," a film that examines the epidemic of rape within the military, how it affects victims and why so few cases are prosecuted.
Through interviews with rape survivors and military officials, "The Invisible War" suggests that it's not just the violence and harassment that traumatizes victims, but the absence of impartial justice and personal retaliation they often experience after reporting the incident. A rape survivor's only judicial recourse is to report the attack to her commander - even if he was the attacker - and it's his decision whether to investigate and prosecute, regardless of the evidence.
"If they investigate it, and the investigator comes back and says, 'I've got a slam-dunk case. I can put this serial perpetrator behind bars,' the commander can, on his or her own, decide no, we're not going to send this case to court martial," Dick said.
A 2009 study shows that only eight percent of military sex offenders are prosecuted.
"The Invisible War" introduces viewers to Kori Cioca, who left the Coast Guard after being beaten and raped by her supervisor. Five years later, she still suffers from post-traumatic stress and has yet to receive Veterans Administration approval for the surgery she needs to repair the injuries she suffered during the attack. The perpetrator, who continues to serve in the Coast Guard, hit her so hard that he permanently dislocated her jaw.
Viewers also meet Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant Ariana Klay, who served in Iraq before being gang-raped by a senior officer and his friend while stationed at the elite Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. Klay's husband, also a Marine, cried as he described his concern and fear that his wife would commit suicide.
Other rape survivors shown in the film, including Cioca, say they also contemplated suicide.
Hannah Sewell, who comes from a military family, said she has trouble convincing herself that she is still a virgin after being raped while serving in the Navy. Her father, wearing his own military uniform, recounts the story through tears.
Dick and Ziering traveled the country to interview some 70 survivors of military rape.
"We weren't really ready for all the stories we heard," Ziering said. "Each one had a lot of similarities and all were equally horrific."
But the filmmakers say they remained optimistic throughout the project and have been gratified by the film's reception at Sundance, where politicians such as Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio attended the premiere. Grammy winner Mary J. Blige has also pledged to write an original song for the film.
"Our great hope was and continues to be that capturing (survivors') experience and their trauma will help change things for hundreds of thousands of men and women who are in the armed forces," Dick said.
www.invisiblewarmovie.com
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Arts and Healthcare in Orange County, NY
The Orange County Arts Council has just identified Arts and Healthcare as one its top initiatives for 2012.
This blog will serve as the notebook and diary as we begin to shape this initiative.
Dawn Ansbro, the Executive Directior of the Arts Council and I, Daniel Mack, a Council Board Member will be responsible for helping this all come to life.
Here are events and organizations related to this issue:
1. From November 2009-April 2010, Orange County artists, sponsored by an Orange County Tourism grant, met 24 times (about 100 hours) to explore the role of arts in healthcare. We brought in arts and healthcare experts to help us better understand the issues. Here is the diary of those meetings
2. The Center for Creative Aging
3. The Creative Center at University Settlement is dedicated to bringing the creative arts to people with cancer, chronic illnesses, and through all stages of life.
Founded in 1994 on the belief that "medicine cures the body, but art heals the spirit," The Creative Center began as a series of free art workshops for women with cancer. 17 years later, with immeasurable recognition in the field of arts in healthcare and the nonprofit sector, The Creative Center is proud to have hospital artist-in-residence programs in more than 20 healthcare sites around the New York metropolitan area, free-of-charge art workshops every day of the week, an online gallery representing professional artists living with illness, and a training program bringing The Creative Center's proven approach to arts in healthcare around the country.
In 2011, The Creative Center became a program of University Settlement and has begun to expand into the growing field of "creative aging", putting into practice what recent research has shown; that arts activities and experiences provide not only opportunities for artistic and self expression, but also measurable health benefits to seniors at all stages in the aging continuum, enabling them to live better and healthier lives. The Creative Center will now become integrated throughout University Settlement's senior programming
This blog will serve as the notebook and diary as we begin to shape this initiative.
Dawn Ansbro, the Executive Directior of the Arts Council and I, Daniel Mack, a Council Board Member will be responsible for helping this all come to life.
Here are events and organizations related to this issue:
1. From November 2009-April 2010, Orange County artists, sponsored by an Orange County Tourism grant, met 24 times (about 100 hours) to explore the role of arts in healthcare. We brought in arts and healthcare experts to help us better understand the issues. Here is the diary of those meetings
2. The Center for Creative Aging
3. The Creative Center at University Settlement is dedicated to bringing the creative arts to people with cancer, chronic illnesses, and through all stages of life.
Founded in 1994 on the belief that "medicine cures the body, but art heals the spirit," The Creative Center began as a series of free art workshops for women with cancer. 17 years later, with immeasurable recognition in the field of arts in healthcare and the nonprofit sector, The Creative Center is proud to have hospital artist-in-residence programs in more than 20 healthcare sites around the New York metropolitan area, free-of-charge art workshops every day of the week, an online gallery representing professional artists living with illness, and a training program bringing The Creative Center's proven approach to arts in healthcare around the country.
In 2011, The Creative Center became a program of University Settlement and has begun to expand into the growing field of "creative aging", putting into practice what recent research has shown; that arts activities and experiences provide not only opportunities for artistic and self expression, but also measurable health benefits to seniors at all stages in the aging continuum, enabling them to live better and healthier lives. The Creative Center will now become integrated throughout University Settlement's senior programming
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