SINGAPORE – There has been growing interest in emergent modes of healing in Singapore, notably performing arts medicine – targeted at musicians, dancers, singers and other performers – and poetry therapy, also known as poetic medicine.
Noting the large number of arts events in Singapore, Ms Pooja Verma, a senior physiotherapist at Physio Asia Therapy Centre who specialises in PAM, says: “Singapore is growing in the arts field, but has a long way to go in terms of awareness of performing arts medicine.” These forms of healing are more established overseas. The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, for example, marks its 40th anniversary in 2024, while the Association for Poetry Therapy was established in the United States in 1969.
In December 2021, Changi General Hospital also launched a Performing Arts Medicine Clinic at the Singapore Sport and Exercise Medicine Centre at Novena Medical Center. Similar services are offered at CGH.For a few days in February, about 200 doctors, nurses, medical students, hospice staff and patients in Singapore read and wrote poems.