Document 1078
 DOCN  M9471078
 TI    Sharing the patient experience in the classroom with the Art for
       Recovery program (AFR) (Meeting abstract).
 DT    9409
 AU    Perlis C; Wallace D; Rosenbaum E; UCSF/Mount Zion Medical Center, 1600
       Divisidaro St., San; Francisco CA 94120
 SO    Proc Annu Meet Am Soc Clin Oncol; 13:A1552 1994. Unique Identifier :
       AIDSLINE ICDB/94601545
 AB    Beginning in September of 1992, a co-operative learning/healing project
       was initiated involving 24 7th and 8th grade students from Brandeis
       Hillel Day School and 12 adult AFR participants with cancer or AIDS from
       the medical center. Ms Perlis delivered patients' art work and letters
       to the students each month, facilitated a group discussion, and the
       students' replies. The objective of the project was to increase
       awareness and compassion regarding life threatening diseases among the
       students. Initially the children were unsure of what to write or to
       draw. As the monthly exchanges occurred the students and the patients
       became more inquisitive, intimate, and candid. Students were soon asking
       what it felt like to have a life-threatening illness such as cancer or
       AIDS. The exchanges of art works and letters brought forth shared
       concerns, such as embarrassment over a wind-blown wig, physical
       limitations, or fear of dying. Patients who were well enough visited the
       school to meet their 'pen pals.' This interpersonal experience validated
       what had previously only been known at a distance--we are all community.
       Illness does not make us less human nor does it render obsolete our
       basic need for social belonging.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome  Adolescence  Adult  *Art Therapy
       Child  Human  Neoplasms  MEETING ABSTRACT

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