Killing the taboo that Narrative Medicine applies only for rare disease and doesn’t fit for Intensive therapy… if well performed, it can help both in the phase in which the patient is at the hospital and later to get back to life, metabolizing through the writing the life threatening experience.
There are interesting and successfull experiences in United States and North Europe in the use of a diary to help people in ICU to overcome the trauma caused by prolonged sedation. Diaries are written by patients’ caregivers, nurses and other component of the equipe. The patient can read aftewords the story of his/her experience and will be more able to understand what happened to him/her and reduce the risk of a permanent shock… a really welcome common diary!
See the article “Nightmares After the I.C.U.” by JAN HOFFMAN: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/nightmares-after-the-i-c-u/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
ICU Diary Web site: http://www.icu-diary.org/diary/start.html