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Fabienne Weisshaupt and Bea Heller help young patients in crisis situations to find an expression for everything for which there are no words. A visit to the workroom.
«We have created an oasis,» says Fabienne Weisshaupt. She beams when she talks about the workroom at UKBB. As a crafts teacher, she and Bea Heller look after the psychosomatic patients on ward A3 here. They offer artistic design, technical and textile work as well as art therapy.
It does seem a bit chaotic, this oasis. But also like a place where many things can be created. Creativity is everywhere here. The hospital environment is immediately forgotten.
Between brushes and paints, felt, yarn, plaster, wood, half-finished pictures and sculptures, the young patients discover a mostly unsuspected passion. Anyone who sets foot in here will inevitably start filing and folding, crocheting and hammering, painting and pasting at some point. As if it were contagious. And then stories are literally processed.
The works often tell of origins and identity, appearing joyful to cheerful. Others conceal a secret or a traumatic experience for which there are hardly any words.
«These patients have come to UKBB with a life crisis or an eating disorder and some of them stay for a long time. We help them to find their own way of expressing themselves on a topic that interests them,» says Fabienne Weisshaupt. «We certainly have a certain demand for craftsmanship. But the most important thing is to take away the pressure that this complex world is constantly trying to put on these young people. The Werkraum is about expression and freedom, not about performance and perfection.»
Like the hospital school, art classes are part of the daily programme for psychosomatic patients. On group afternoons, they also go to museums, exhibitions and sometimes to the cinema, where new topics await them.
Fabienne Weisshaupt has been passionate about her profession for 30 years. «I particularly like it when everyone is working quietly and focussed on their own project - and then suddenly a big discussion arises. We learn a lot from the patients and I'm always touched when we realise how someone has perhaps just found better access to themselves with us.»
The Medgate Kids Line provides quick and uncomplicated medical advice if your child is unwell. The medical team of our partner Medgate is available to you by telephone around the clock.
For emergencies abroad: Call the emergency number of your health insurance company. You will find this number on your health insurance card.
More information: On the Page of the emergency ward you will find everything you need to know about behaviour in emergencies, typical childhood illnesses and waiting times.
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