St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny welcomes art therapy student on placement

A new art therapist is helping patients at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny.

Tara Walsh is an MA Art Therapy student on placement in St Luke's Hospital until May. She comes to the hospital from the Crawford College of Art MTU in Cork.

Tara will offer art therapy sessions to patients attending the Paediatric Diabetic and Gastroenterology Outpatients clinics and will also support inpatients in the Paediatric ward. She may also offer an Art Therapy weekly support group for parents of Paediatric patients.

Art therapists work with families, supporting parents and siblings with their emotional resilience around difficult diagnosis or life-changing illnesses.

Art therapists help children who experience, ‘needle stick’, or phobia and recently St Luke's had a breakthrough with one of the longer-term patients attending for regular blood tests; she is now less stressed and it is easier for staff to take her bloods and she is so much happier coming to her regular appointments.

Art therapists also work with patients with all sorts of complex physical and emotional healthcare challenges and help support them towards wellness.