Storytelling in the Palliative Care Unit at Bruyère
Jaya Rastogi, Kim Kilpatrick, Ginger, and Dr. Kaitlyn Boese
by Tara Wiebe
For the past year, Radical Connections has been working with Bruyère’s Palliative Care Unit (PCU) to find an innovative way to bring artists into palliative care. When the team working on the project heard about Dr. Cory Ingram’s 55-word storytelling project at the Ottawa Hospital, they thought it would be an excellent fit for Bruyère. Luckily, Dr. Ingram was enthusiastic to join the team and share his resources.
Storytelling is used in palliative care to promote well-being and process difficult emotions. It is also a meaningful experience for the participants and their loved ones to hold on to in a place of uncertainty and loss. With funding help from the Bruyère Academic Medical Organization, the PCU team has asked Ottawa storyteller Kim Kilpatrick to lead the sessions. Over the next few months Kim and research coordinator Jaya Rastogi will meet with people from Bruyère’s PCU for the next few months to hear and share their stories.
The outcome of this project will be a collection of 55-word stories and a research paper on the usefulness and feasibility of storytelling in palliative care collaboratively written by Carol, Jenny and the Bruyère research team. Finally , there will be a film and exhibit which will explore the stories and research.
Staff, residents and loved ones in the palliative care unit will meet with Kim and Jaya on Zoom and in private rooms for one-hour sessions (that may be broken up for some participants). With Kim leading the sessions, they will begin with a verbal or written brainstorming of ideas for a story. Then, Kim will give the participant prompts to help narrow the ideas into a short story. The participant then has the choice to write down their story or speak it while someone takes notes or records it. The stories can be anything, and not limited to their experience at the PCU. Kim hopes to keep the process as flexible as possible to provide everyone with comfortable options. Participants can keep their stories and share them with their loved ones.
“I feel that this is such a powerful experience. I barely put my bum in the chair and the stories come pouring out of people, patients, caregivers, and staff. I am honoured to take their words and shape them into stories and then present them back. The stories are gifts to me and gifts to them and gifts to those who hear them. They want the stories to be heard and acknowledged.”
Kim Kilpatrick, Ottawa Storyteller and Facilitator of Storytelling Sessions
Jaya will be working on the research part of this project. Along with her team at Bruyère, she will be testing the feasibility and acceptability of this storytelling model in the PCU. They will ask participants to complete a survey once they have attended a session to assess the usefulness and ease of the activity. Additionally, there will be an exit interview with the storyteller, Kim, to understand the challenges and findings from the storyteller’s point of view.
Once all the stories are collected, Kim Kilpatrick hopes to work with Rachel Gray to create an art project, either a film or other visual artwork. An important aspect of the final art project will be to include the stories from Kim’s experience doing these sessions in the PCU.
For more information about the 55-word story model, read this article from the International Journal of Whole Person Care.
Team involved in this project:
Dr. Kaitlyn Boese, Bruyère Continuing Care
Dr. Jessica Roy
Dr. Sarina Isenberg (PhD), Bruyère Research Institute
Co-Applicants:
Dr. Carol Wiebe, Radical Connections
Ms. Jenny McMaster, Radical Connections
Dr. Shirley Bush, Bruyère Continuing Care
Ms. Kim Kilpatrick, professional storyteller
Ms. Jaya Rastogi, Bruyère Research Institute
Collaborators:
Dr. Cory Ingram, Mayo Clinic
Ms. Claudia Hampel, caregiver advisor