Operation Santa Claus: Healing powers of art can transform lives of bedridden hospital patients

Recovering mental health patients will transform themselves as medical ambassadors and create colourful paintings with bedridden convalescents in hospital rooms, thanks to the latest project organised by non-profit organisation Art In Hospital.

Sponsored by Operation Santa Claus, a fundraising drive jointly organised by the and the RTHK, the charity - which has been serving hospital patients through therapeutic art creations since 1994 - launches the "Shine Our Lives" programme in March next year.

In a pilot scheme around 20 recovering mental health patients will become ambassadors and visit hospital patients, connecting with them through art.

The ambassadors will first undergo a round of 16 training lessons led by professional artists, medical staff, and social workers to become equipped with the artistic knowledge and communication skills needed for the visits.

When ready, they will then make at least eight trips to hospital wards, giving simple watercolour or acrylic painting workshops to patients who are too weak or too reliant on medical equipment to leave their beds.

"This is the first time we have created 'bedside art'," says Grace Cheng Sim-yee, director of Art in Hospital. "In the past our workshops were not in hospital rooms so they were only available to patients healthy enough to leave their beds - this time we can reach those who couldn't."

Cheng, who studied fine arts and design at university and worked as a curator at the Hong Kong Arts Centre before taking up her current post, believes the pilot project will bring huge benefits to both groups of patients.