This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
‘The Patient Voice’ program stresses human element of diabetes care
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A nonprofit organization created to focus on the human side of diabetes through theater arts will host an afternoon of puppetry and conversation for patients living with diabetes, their family members and the clinicians, diabetes educators and community health workers who manage the disease.
In a short video discussing her personal experience of living with type 1 diabetes, Marina Tsaplina, PWD, founder, executive and artistic director of The Betes Organization, said the medical model of disease did not take into account her actual life experiences.
“The only focus was on the numbers, as if my health was a machine; it isn’t,” Tsaplina said in the video. “This gap between the scientific objective understanding of disease, and the subject of lived experience, is what The Betes programming helps to bridge.”
The Betes Organization will present “The Patient Voice 2016: Bridging the Diabetes Gaps,” on Sunday, March 20, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in New York City. The program will include excerpts of The Betes programming, followed by an expert multidisciplinary panel discussion, award ceremony for Jason Baker, MD, and Barbara Anderson, PhD, and closing with a wine and jazz reception.
Through therapeutic, theater-driven programming that includes puppetry and storytelling, The Betes Organization, Tsaplina said, refocuses the spotlight on the heart of health care — the human experience of disease. That refocusing, she said, can help transform suffering.
“It’s not about puppets, it’s about your ability to achieve your goals,” Tsaplina said. “It’s creating space in our culture to reflect ... on how the presence of a chronic health condition shapes all of us.”
The Betes Organization, founded in 2013, includes theater education programs developed by professional artists in partnership with clinical psychologist Kenneth Gorfinkle, PhD, to address the mental and emotional health side of living with diabetes.
For more information:
The Betes Organization will present “The Patient Voice 2016: Bridging the Diabetes Gaps” on Sunday, March 20, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at 417 E. 61 St. and 1st Ave., Manhattan, New York. View videos about the organization, and purchase tickets for the event at http://bit.ly/PatientVoice.