Center marks anniversary of art therapy program

April will mark the 25th anniversary of Riverview Medical Center’s children’s art therapy program. This award-winning program was created to provide help and support through creativity for children who are affected by either the death or chronic illness of a deeply loved family member. Riverview’s art therapy was founded by longtime Riverview nurse, Helen Riegelman, RN, in response to a request from a hospice patient who was dying of cancer, and desperately looking for help for her own grieving children. The program was one of the first of its kind in the northeast, and was modeled on a similar program in California.

Now 25 years later, Riverview’s program has provided help to more than 2,000 children. It has evolved in that time from dealing with primarily cancer diagnosis to encompass issues related to accidents, epilepsy, heart disease, diabetes, behavioral disorders, multiple sclerosis, ALS, and even suicide and murder. And, of course, art therapy was there to help many children and their families cope with the tremendous personal losses of 9/11.

Many of the children who participated in the program years ago are now adults, living happy and healthy lives. As we celebrate the momentous anniversary of this very special program, we are very interested in locating some of these past participants and learning how they feel art therapy helped them through a very difficult time in their young lives.

If you were at one time helped by the children’s art therapy program at Riverview and would be willing to share your memories of the program to help mark its 25th anniversary, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Jane Weinheimer, L.C.S.W., children’s art therapy at Riverview Medical Center at jweinheimer@meridianhealth.com.

Jane Weinheimer

coordinator

Children’s Art Therapy

Riverview Medical Center

Red Bank