“Every time I enter the hospital and see the artists at work in their space, I think, ‘yes, our health system isn’t perfect, and sometimes it’s too focused on using medication and surgery instead of therapy involving the patient, but the Creativity for Health Program, one of the most healing services offered in the health district, shows that things are changing right here in Pasqua Hospital.’ Bonnie Chapman is not just an average artist.
People like her do not come by very often. Ask the patients who have been to her sessions at Pasqua.
Ask them which person among all of the doctors, nurses, technicians and other practitioners they encountered in their passage through the system had the most healing touch, which person showed them how to find the healing within themselves. Many, I am confident, will say it was Bonnie.
It is hard to compete with life-saving machinery, salaries for specialists, and helicopter trauma rescue programs, but . . .
If only there were a way to measure the rewards that accrue in a cancer patient’s heart when it opens to the possibility that they can recover and stay healthy. I have always said to my wife, Karen, that of all the things she tried and worked with during her recovery, the time she spent with Bonnie Chapman did the most for restoring her sense of wholeness and wellbeing.”
Trevor Herriot