Direct Support of Art Therapy Positions in Hospitals

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, known as Bart's, is an internationally renowned teaching hospital and a center of excellence for cancer care. Their Cancer Centre, the second biggest of its kind in London, provides cancer services for more than 1.5 million people. To help ensure that Art Therapy is available to the most needed patients, the Corinne Burton Memorial Trust is currently funding two art therapists working with cancer patients at Barts Hospital (with matching funding from the NHS), who have collectively provided much needed support to thousands of patients. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic the CBMT Art Therapists delivered therapy online to patients to maintain services. They also extended their services to help support overstretched doctors and other medical staff. Charles Knight, managing director at St Bartholomew's Hospital, said: "These sessions are about providing support to our fantastic doctors, who do a remarkable job caring for our patients. We understand that the work they do can be emotionally challenging, and we hope these therapy sessions can help them deal with some of the stresses that naturally come with the job." In recognition of the powerful and broader role that Art Therapy played in the COVID-19 response at Barts, their Psychological services team (including art therapy and psychology) were put forward for a parliamentary award for their role in staff support during the peak of the pandemic.

“If it wasn’t for CBMT there wouldn’t be art therapy at Barts; there wouldn’t be the research that is happening on art therapy as an effective way of engaging and supporting young men with cancer; the work with the doctors and nurses at Barts wouldn’t be happening.”
— Megan Tjasink, Barts Art Therapist