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Art Therapy and Cancer Care · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking FACS, and thank you for tuning in to Cancer Conversations
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  on Talking FACS, a podcast collaboration between the University of Kentucky
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  Markey Cancer Center and the UK Martin Gatton College of Agriculture,
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  Food, and Environment's Cooperative Extension Service.
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  We will share with you the latest developments in cancer prevention,
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  diagnosis, treatment, and research from the experts at Markey Cancer Center,
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  Kentucky's only National Cancer Institute Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
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  Talking FACS is hosted by the UK Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Extension Director for Family
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  Consumer Sciences at the University of Kentucky.
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  Today, I'm pleased to be joined by Amber Bruce, an art therapist with UK Healthcare. Welcome, Amber.
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  Thank you. So I'm very excited to share today's topic with our listeners and
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  I wanted to start with the question of what is art therapy?
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  So art therapy is basically, it's a mental health profession.
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  So I'm trained just like like a regular therapist, but I'm trained in using
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  art during the sessions.
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  So basically art therapy uses traditional like psychotherapy methods and like
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  melds it with art making.
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  So we use like different art interventions that can help you process different
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  mental health struggles that you might be having or different experiences like that.
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  So Amber, I know you work within the hospital setting.
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  Is it common to have an art therapist within the hospital?
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  It's not common in other hospitals, but UK is pretty cool in the fact that they
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  have a position for us here.
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  So that's been around. It's been here for a while, but for a minute,
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  there wasn't someone in that position. So yeah.
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  Today, we're predominantly talking about art therapy and cancer care.
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  So could you share share with us how art therapy is used within the cancer population.
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  I take a little bag of art supplies with me and have a session with them.
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  And so what we do typically, we can work on different things like fine motor skills.
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  So where they might be really tired or really sick, we work with them on like
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  getting them up and doing art making.
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  So that helps like with their hand movement, but it also, we can process like
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  a different diagnoses that they might be dealing with or a new diagnosis as well.
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  We process like grief and loss with them and like family dynamics of families
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  there. We can provide support for them.
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  So really, we're just there to process whatever they need at the time as they
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  deal with their cancer diagnosis.
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  Can you share a little bit more about what types of art are utilized?
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  Yeah. So I can bring anything that I have in my office and I try to give them
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  a list of the stuff that I do have.
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  So a lot of times I think I use a lot of
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  paint when it comes to the cancer center floor people tend
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  to are drawn towards paint because it's more fluid and
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  it can kind of create more of an emotional experience with that
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  but I do have other materials that we use sometimes we use art interventions
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  or art assessments or art therapy assessments that we've learned so we can do
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  different things like that to assess like their mental health diagnosis the
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  art that So we can use like paint,
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  mask making, crochet, knitting.
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  We do drawing. For a lot of assessments for art therapy, we do a lot of drawing.
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  And we look at like graphic indicators that are in their art to assess different
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  things. So it's pretty interesting.
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  Can you share about how art therapy fits within the continuum of care or the full care support team?
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  Yeah. So basically, a lot of times what we do when we get consult, it's for mental health.
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  A lot of times in the hospital setting, there's not a consistent person that
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  comes to them to process the mental health struggles that they might be having.
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  We do have like psychiatry that can go and diagnose and do medications and things
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  like that. But we don't have that consistent mental health piece.
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  And that's where we get consulted a lot by doctors. doctors,
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  art therapy is, since we are trained like a therapist, we are able to provide
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  that support just utilizing the art.
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  So, they also consult music therapy as well a lot of the time for that mental health support piece.
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  So, we've talked about art therapy in general and within cancer care.
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  Can you tell us, and you've hit some highlights, but tell us more specifically
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  about the program at UK Healthcare?
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  Yeah. Art therapy, like I said, it's been around for a a while at UK.
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  We had an original art therapist that started the position herself and she was just in Markey.
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  And I think it was outpatient at one point, then it was inpatient.
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  Now that I am here, we have grown it to Olive Chandler Hospital.
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  So I see all of Chandler and Markey Cancer Center and the birthing center.
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  And then I have some co-workers that see other areas of the hospital.
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  Amber, we've talked quite a bit about inpatient care.
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  Does UK healthcare also have outpatient resources or opportunities?
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  Yes. Currently we have outpatient art therapy events that we're doing in the
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  integrative medicine department at UK.
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  So those are events that anyone that is a cancer survivor can sign up for and
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  it will lead up to the expressions of courage event in May.
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  Can you share more about what the expression of courage event is?
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  Yeah. Expressions of courage is a event for survivors of cancer.
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  So it's basically celebrating survivorship and it brings people that have survived
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  cancer together so that they can celebrate together, but they also have an art
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  show that we like to put art in.
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  So that's another reason we're kind of tying in those art therapy events so
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  that people can take their expressions of their experiences and put it into
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  the art show for Expressions of Courage.
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  That's a really, a really neat opportunity.
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  Amber, thank you so much for joining us today. One of the things that I've enjoyed
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  about the Cancer Conversation podcast, and I hope that our listeners do as well,
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  is just learning about the breadth of programming and breadth of services that
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  are available here within UK Healthcare and the Markey Cancer Center,
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  but that also individuals that may not be located close to Lexington could ask
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  their local providers if such care and services are available.
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  For our listeners, we will link the the website about the art therapy program
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  at UK Healthcare if they're interested in learning more.
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  Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Amber.
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  Thank you for listening to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  Our goal is to connect you with the latest advances in cancer research in the Commonwealth.
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  If you enjoyed today's podcast and have a suggestion for a future show topic,
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  please message us on the UK Markey Cancer Center
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  Facebook page at facebook.com forward slash
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  UK Markey or visit our website at
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  Markey dot uky dot edu for more information you can find University of Kentucky
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  Family and Consumer Sciences Extension programs at your local extension office
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  or online at FCS dot uky dot edu building strong families building Kentucky it starts.
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  Music.