ABU DHABI // Dr Faisal Al Nowais and occupational therapist Anupama Vijay smiled with pride as they led a visitor through the Ramadan Bazaar they organised to sell their psychiatric patients’ handicrafts.
“Come here, come here,” Dr Al Nowais said, gesturing for the guest to follow him toward a group of paintings, including a framed portrait of Sheikh Khalifa resting on an easel.
“One of our patients is a really good painter, so she painted that and this.”
The paintings were among dozens of handmade items displayed in the reception area of the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.
The arts and crafts were created by about 30 adult patients from the Behavioural Science Pavilion (BSP) in occupational therapy classes.
For the past year, Ms Vijay and Dr Al Nowais have been displaying their patients’ arts and craftwork in a series of public exhibitions in the hospital for the Do It Yourself project.
The most recent sale was at a special Ramadan bazaar this week.
“The art project was part of the occupational therapy, and expression is something that is very important for a lot of these patients because their illness make them unable to express themselves properly sometimes,” said Dr Al Nowais.
“They have their own internal world that is always busy and complex and active to the point where they really can’t express themselves at all.”
Ms Vijay said: “They expressed [themselves] in their art.”
The classes are part of the broader occupational therapy programme, led by Ms Vijay with the assistance of a small team of volunteers.
Participants, both in and outpatients, take part in daily activities that include therapy sessions, group exercise, social-skills development, computer literacy, cooking, beautification and English classes.
“What we do is we train the patient to be independent in their function,” said Ms Vijay. “To improve their functional abilities, to make them be independent in everything.”
The BSP is made up of different wards – acute, progress, long-term, outpatient, forensics and chemical dependency – that can accommodate up to 90 patients.
Members of the Do It Yourself project come from the long-term inpatient and the outpatient day-centre units, and are selected by Dr Al Nowais and Ms Vijay.
“We deal with patients who are chronic psychiatric patients,” said Dr Al Nowais.
“We are talking about people with schizophrenia, people who are bipolar, people who have cognitive dysfunction or mental retardation and so on, but most of the people who did the work here are chronic schizophrenics.”
To be selected for the group, a patient has to be assessed as “stable,” he said.
“Stable means that they are not going to be too distracted by their psychotic symptoms, they’re not hearing voices, they’re not relapsing, they’re not suicidal,” said Dr Al Nowais.
The patients share 50 per cent of the profits, while the other half helps to cover the cost of materials. The project is also part-funded by the hospital.
Paying the patients cash for their work is a significant part of the scheme, said Dr Al Nowais.
“They don’t get a lot of money and some of them come from wealthy families, so it’s not like they need the money. It’s really the realisation that they made something with their own hands, and they got some kind of monetary thing out of it.”
Ms Vijay said: “And the cash is something that everybody is happy about. You give them something, it doesn’t have as much meaning, but cash, there’s a lot of meaning.”
“And I feel the patient should not be sympathised with for this. You know, ‘Oh, they’re a patient, that’s why we need to give to them’.
“They should be applauded for the work they do. They should be given appreciation for the quality works that they do.”
The next Do It Yourself bazaar will be held in October at the BSP in Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.
rpennington@thenational.ae