I’M A CHILD, I AM AT HOSPITAL

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS MADE BY CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS OF A PEDIATRIC WARD

Abstract

Hospitalization can separate children and adolescents from their environment and usual relationships. They are often exposed to inflexible routines, unknown people, equipment, and procedures; aggressive and frightening treatments may trigger negative feelings of anguish, anxiety, aggressiveness, passivity, negativism, and fear. However, the hospital should not only be a space for pain and suffering, it can offer healing and relief from symptoms, and it can also be used to implement humanized, playful, and pleasurable activities. Thus, this experience report aims to describe the plastic production processof canvases, which made up an exhibition. Hospitalized children and adolescents created the screens during Occupational Therapy sessions. The occupational therapist proposed that patients freely express what hospitalization means to them, how they feel in the hospital or even portray something remarkable about the hospitalization. Different materials were made available, such as paints, colored glues, brushes, glitter, glitter, magazines, scissors, glue, pencils, erasers and rulers, and canvases of different sizes, thus enabling free creation and expression, both individually and in a group. The thirteen

canvases produced were displayed in the hospital’s entrance hall for viewing by visitors to other

patients and health professionals. A notebook was made available for public comments and criticism. It observed that most children and adolescents focused, in their productions, aspects that they consider positive of hospitalization. Negative feelings aroused by the hospitalization were expressed and suggestions for improvements in the environment were reported. The reported experience allowed children and adolescents to express themselves freely and become active subjects. The exhibition also favored interaction with health professionals, awakening their gaze on patients’ experiences.