Farewell Quilt, Turning Loss Into Warmth and Comfort

This six week ethnographic research examined how a fiber art-based intervention can offer a therapeutic space for the community members at a long-term care skilled nursing facility in Chicago, IL to process death and grief. A total of seven participants, six residents and one certified nursing assistant, attended at least one of six group art therapy sessions to make the Farewell Quilt, a community quilt meant to help participants process their feelings of grief in regards to resident deaths. Mixed methods of data collection were used, including documentation of in-session discussions, a questionnaire completed by the participants, and pictures of work-in-progress. The questionnaire asked about the grief experience, notification of resident death, coping with grief, thoughts on group art therapy, and thoughts on using the Farewell Quilt as part of post-mortem ritual at Wesley Place. Following themes were examined through gathered data: 1) death, grief, and grieving, 2) noticing change in naming death, 3) positive feedback on group art therapy, and 4) using the Farewell Quilt as a post-mortem ritual. The results showed that grief and the grieving process were different among participants and the participants reported that the weekly art therapy sessions helpful in processing resident death and grief.

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http://allcnaprograms.com/farewell-quilt-turning-loss-into-warmth-and-comfort/