Artists with Disabilities
Although the Medical Program for Performing Artists was founded in 1985 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, since 1990 it has been a part of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). At the time of the move I felt that this special medical environment would provide an ideal setting for our clinic, and this feeling has been borne out by the experience of the subsequent decade. What I did not anticipate was the nonmedical impact on both my patients and myself from such an institution. Performing arts patients typically have problems that are not readily apparent to the casual observer, albeit their significance to the artists. Furthermore, by and large their problems have minimal impact on their nonartistic lives as well as on their health in general. More typical patients seen at the Rehabilitation Institute have a wide spectrum of disabilities, which, in contrast to the performing artist patients, have disrupted and compromised both their own lives and those of their families.