Writing and Health Care

Creative and Critical Approaches
A practical introduction to the fields of arts in health, health humanities, and narrative medicine from the perspective of a creative writer, this book teaches artists, patients, and health practitioners how to exercise the benefits of aesthetic thinking.

How can arts-based approaches benefit patients and professionals within the health care system? Can the skills creative writers use to craft their work be applied more broadly to enhance the wellbeing of those in need of medical care?

This book offers a practical introduction to how these ideas can be employed within health care settings as treatments, to foster more empathetic and humane interactions between patients and practitioners, and to help understand the personal narratives of others. Combining aesthetic theory with practice, Writing and Health Care reflects on the role of creative expression in bettering the life and well-being of oneself and others. Touching on areas as diverse as health humanities, narrative medicine, creative therapies and transformative language arts, it introduces a range of genres including graphic medicine, illness narratives, “sick lit” and more. Foregrounding health justice and thinking with intersectional communities at the forefront, this book enables readers to write in ways that resist limited thinking, contribute to the transformation of health systems and processes, and generate works that promote forms of expression with therapeutic effects for patients and practitioners alike.