Istituto Golgi Redaelli: The Art That Accompanies
Eight years of continuous work at Istituto Golgi Redaelli in Milan. From 2017 to 2023 in the Integrated Day Care Centre and six Residential Care Facility wards, with people affected by Alzheimer's, senile dementia, bipolar disorder and depression: through art materials I fostered self-esteem, the recovery of dignity and fine motor skills. The experience culminated in an exhibition across the entire Day Care Centre area. From 2021 to 2025 I also worked in the Hospice and PVS wards, supporting patients, caregivers and the medical team through both group and individual sessions.
An Institution with Seven Centuries of History
ASP Golgi Redaelli is a historic institution of the city of Milan, born from the merger of charitable organisations that have served the community for over seven hundred years. Today it manages Residential Care Facilities, Hospice units and Integrated Day Care Centres dedicated to the care of the elderly and the chronically ill.
In this setting I worked for eight years, bringing clinical art therapy to wards and contexts that were very different from one another — each with its own characteristics, its own vulnerabilities, its own hidden resources.
Integrated Day Care Centre and Residential Care Facility (2017-2023)
From 2017 to 2023 I led clinical art therapy programmes in the Integrated Day Care Centre and in six Residential Care Facility wards, working with people affected by Alzheimer’s, senile dementia, bipolar disorder and depression.
Working with the frail elderly requires a particular sensitivity: time stretches, gestures become simpler, yet emotions remain intact. Through art materials — finger paints, clay, collage — I fostered:
- The recovery of self-esteem and a sense of dignity
- The maintenance of fine motor skills
- Cognitive stimulation through the creative process
- The strengthening of relationships within the group
This multi-year programme culminated in an exhibition that involved the entire Day Care Centre area: the participants’ artworks were displayed, giving visibility and value to the work of people who are too often invisible.
Hospice and PVS (2021-2025)
From 2021 my work extended to the Hospice and Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) wards, where the work takes on an even more profound meaning. In Hospice, art therapy accompanies the end of life: it is not about producing artworks, but about offering a space for expression and dignity even in the final stretch of the journey.
I work with:
- Patients, through individual and small-group sessions
- Caregivers, offering a space for processing and respite
- The medical team, with interventions focused on support and burnout prevention
In Hospice I learned that art does not need time to be meaningful. Sometimes a mark, a colour, a shared gesture is enough.
Teamwork
Across all these settings, constant dialogue with doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists and healthcare workers has been essential. Art therapy does not operate in isolation: it integrates into the person’s care plan, bringing a different perspective — that of creativity — into a structured clinical pathway.
Memoir
From the long years of work in the Hospice and PVS wards at Istituto Golgi Redaelli, a memoir was born that recounts from the inside the experience of art therapy in palliative care. Not a technical manual, but a personal narrative: the relationship with patients, teamwork, therapeutic choices, silences, discoveries and the questions that remain. A text that weaves together the clinical and the human dimensions, because in hospice the two can never be separated.
The book is available for free on this website and can be downloaded.