“From Heritage to Health:” Bringing the diverse cultures of everyday life to medical care.

Steve Zeitlin, founder and executive director of City Lore, and Phyllis Zimmer, founder and president of the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation, discuss their joint project "From Heritage to Health" (H2H).  Funded partly by the National Endowment for the Arts, this initiative aims to integrate storytelling and the arts into healthcare, particularly for a culturally diverse population.  Zeitlin and Zimmer talk about the various components of the program: learner-needs assessments, eLearning courses, public and professional presentations, and toolkits focusing on culturally-attuned health care and ways to harness the arts for end-of-life care. They discuss creating the accredited eLearning courses and public toolkits featuring the perspective of artists from many cultures and disciplines on healthcare, wellness, death, and dying. Both Zeitlin and Zimmer emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity in healthcare, pointing out how stories and arts from various cultures can help healthcare providers understand and treat patients more effectively. They also discuss the development of H2H and their extensive collaboration with artists and healthcare professionals, the reach of the program, and the strong response from healthcare providers. And we conclude with discussions on potential future expansions of the H2H initiative, including exploring cultural practices and rituals around birth and dementia. Overall, Zeitlin and Zimmer underscore the essential role of the arts in both enhancing healthcare practices through cultural awareness and fostering deeper connections between healthcare providers and patients.