Integrative Health Care for Artists in a Hospital Setting

This book examines an integrative health care (IHC) §clinic set within a hospital located in large city §in Canada. The enquiry began by exploring how §biomedical and CAM practitioners, artists, hospital §administrators, and the Artists Health Centre §Foundation (AHCF) members interacted, communicated, §and collaborated with one another for integrative §patient/client care at the Artists Health Centre §(AHC). Knowledge and attitudes toward IHC are §explored, to understand how these affected the §everyday interactions among stakeholders. The §findings suggest that there was a lack of §understanding regarding how to integrate the various §practitioners. Financial limitations also impeded §the evolution of integrative health. Implications of §this research include enhancing the current §knowledge of teamwork, collaboration, and §integration among healthcare practitioners. This §research used existing IHC models, teamwork models, §and educational and organizational theories for §building a conceptual framework of IHC. Combining §these models with organizational theory shed light §on the several structural and process dimensions of §integration.