human contact

https://www.kqed.org/news/11817046/from-ebola-to-coronavirus-a-simple-practice-of-sticker-photo-portraits-for-doctors

At Covoid-19 test centres and hospitals, health care workers have to wear protective clothing from head to foot. Faces are hidden and so are smiles.

Many people who have corona-virus have to stay alone in a room and the only human contact is with a masked stranger who looks after them. The patient will never see their carer's face.

An artist based in Los Angeles, USA, thought about what it must feel like to be in isolation and not see the face of the person caring for you. Mary Beth Heffernan realised there was a need for human connection.

Mary started printing photos of health care workers and making them in to stickers to go on the front of their suits so that patients could see their faces. Mary thought this might help patients feel more comfortable.

Mary's work as an artist has helped her develop this idea. She says, "the art is not the portrait itself, but is what it acts as a catalyst for, which is a change in relations between the health care worker and the patient. So for me, the patient and health care worker - in a sense, are creating the art."

Mary's idea is spreading and hospitals in other states and also Italy and Canada have been in contact to find out how they can do it too.

what do you see in the picture?
where is it?
who are they?
what is their job?
why is the person on the right dressed like that?
whose face is that on the suit?

explain the picture

- why do health care workers have to cover their faces?
- how do you think a patient feels when they can't see their carers face?
- think about why a patient might feel like an outsider (because they are shut off from the world; no human contact)
- how do the stickers help?
- why do you think Health care workers smile at patients? what does a smile do?
- what difference do the stickers make to the patient?
- what difference do the stickers make to the health care worker?
- why do you think lots of other hospitals are starting to try this even though they are so busy now?
- "the art is not the portrait, the art is the change in relations between the health care worker and patient" what dos this mean? what does Mary believe about art and what art is for?

why is this story about no outsiders?

no outsiders in our school: everyone different, everyone welcome by Andrew Moffat

www.no-outsiders.com