Fanshawe Student Nurses Work With City Art Centre: Innovation and Creativity in Community Mental Health Care

As mental health care moves to a community-based model, it's important for student nurses to experience and understand the importance of the healing environments offered by community programs. One program is the City Art Centre (CAC) in London, Ontario. CAC is a safe place for members to gather to express themselves, primarily through visual arts. It is a member-run, peer-supported organization whose mandate is to offer fellowship and encouragement which facilitates recovery, fosters self-responsibility, and ultimately improves quality of life.

Dan Szynkaruk, second-year student in Fanshawe's BScN Collaborative Nursing Program, presents Deb French, Chair of the Board of City Art Centre, with the concept map he created of the City Art Centre. The concept map was assigned by Professor Kathleen Carmichael for community mental health clinical experience.
(January 24, 2011, at The City Art Centre)

CAC members have generously opened their facility to provide a meaningful learning experience for Fanshawe's second-year student nurses in the community mental health practicum. They have done so to enhance nurses' understanding of the lived experience of mental illness. The offer is both generous and hope-filled.

On January 24, 2011, Dan Szynkaruk, a second-year student in Fanshawe's BScN Collaborative Nursing Program, presented Deb French, Chair of the Board of CAC, with a completed concept map of the City Art Centre. The concept map had been assigned by Professor Kathleen Carmichael for community mental health clinical experience.

Students like Dan gain understanding about the healing potential of creative activities such as painting. They learn firsthand how the recovery process is supported by sharing time in a safe, non-judgmental space. The meaningful experiences and personal growth that result from this innovative clinical practicum reflect the creativity and courage the students recognize in the members at CAC.

Students such as Dan learn a great deal about relationship-building in community mental health practice and how to be with others in a meaningful way.