Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North
Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
June 22, 2006 issue
Statewide Healthcare Initiative Encourages Healing Arts
Story by Sally Treadwell
There it is, tucked away in a closet—your First Aid Box, packed with Band-Aids, antibiotic cream, and aspirin. And if that doesn’t do it, off you go to the doctor with his much bigger First Aid box, crammed with pills and tests. If he’s stumped, the hospital’s next—chemo, surgery, neurologists.
But what if you had another First Aid box? One filled with a thousand choices to boost your immune system, improve your chances of recovery, quell those paralyzing terrors? One that could help your Alzheimer’s-afflicted father remember who he is, or make a hospital stay almost a joy?
That extra box of tricks is already available to you.
North Carolina is the first state to have created a statewide initiative to promote and encourage art as an integral component of healthcare. NC Arts For Health offers information about programs that are already active and successful in hospitals and care facilities around the state, and holds yearly Training Institutes to discuss and develop skills and programs. The organization also provides a way for artists, healthcare providers, patients and their families to connect with each other.
“Healing takes a combination of the mind and the body,” said ASU’s Dr. Kate Brinko, who teaches expressive arts therapy and runs the Express Yourself workshops for children and adults with developmental disabilities. “You can’t really separate the two. We are seeing more and more data about how peoples’ state of mind affects their survival rate. Art can ease the mind and allow you to appreciate the beauty of what’s around you. Then your body can help heal itself.”
Healthcare facilities might use environmental art, such as beautiful sculptures and paintings that can even become markers—and isn’t “turn left by the big fish” nicer than “follow the blue line”?—or music and theater performances.
Or patients might benefit from participating in expressive art. That could be painting, poetry, journaling, gardening, collage, drawing, sculpting, dancing, photography, music, drumming, dream interpretation—anything that “bypasses the logical left side of the brain and goes straight to the issue and allows you to resolve it,” said Brinko. “It’s just magic. Sometimes things happen (in sessions) that we’ve never dreamed of. It helps you to process what you’re going through—to name your emotions and fears.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve never thought of yourself as “artistic,” she said. “Anyone can do collage. We start simple.”
Even people with limited vision can benefit from art therapy, learning creative new skills to compensate for vision loss.
NC Arts For Health’s Website highlights successful programs around the state. Rehabilitation patients might do dance therapy in the supportive waters of a swimming pool. Raised flower and vegetable beds give wheelchair-bound patients a chance to garden. A harpist plays to oncology patients, and a patient quilts while receiving chemotherapy.
Cannon Memorial Hospital in Avery County follows the Planetree model of patient-centered hospitals. Planetree’s nine principles encourage a holistic approach to healthcare with beautiful surroundings, nurturing meals, complementary therapies, the use of healing arts, and empowered patients. A labyrinth provides patients with a walking meditation and a wealth of art pieces draw the eye. Music of all kinds—harp, piano, violin, dulcimer, voice—fills the air as volunteers and local music students visit the facility.
“One patient was getting a foot massage from a Caring Touch volunteer while a harpist played outside his door, and he called his boss and said, ‘You just won’t believe what happens here!’” said Sallie Woodring, who coordinates the program. She’s a big believer in the Planetree model. “Studies show that when you provide a healing environment, that cuts down on medication and shortens recovery time.”
The connection between art and healing is quite obvious to Beth Andrews, an artist and graphic designer, who last year ran a Painting for the Health of It workshop for those whose lives have been touched by cancer.
When Andrews was a child back in the 60s, she was diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer. “Everyone was so busy with the medical issues they didn’t think about how scared I was,” she said. “Then some kind soul brought me a box of paints, the sort of thing I probably shouldn’t have had in a hospital bed—I still remember how it smelled. The turpentine, the oil paints, the canvases. And it got me through. I was so terrified until someone allowed me to move away from the fear.”
Andrews is quick to point out the difference between art therapy and therapeutic art. “They involve different skills and goals, even though an observer might not see any difference.”
Lat winter Andrews trained at the Creative Center, a New York organization that’s dedicated to bringing the arts to people living with cancer, and hopes to do more work with cancer patients and survivors. “There’s a real value to using art to relieve stress and worry,” she said.
Click to www.ncartsforhealth.org for information about programs or quarterly regional meetings. The next regional meeting will be held in September. Contact Kate Brinko at 828-262-6152 or brinkokt@appstate.edu for information or to be added to the listserv.
The seventh annual conference of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) will be held at Appalachian State University in conjunction with NC Arts For Health from May 23 through 27, 2007. The conference is expected to draw people from all over the world, including some of the most influential practitioners of expressive arts therapy.
The session will be entitled Expressive Arts and the Earth: Ancient Mountains, Whispering Waters, Sacred Stones and will include more than 40 concurrent sessions, experiential workshops, performances and a research poster session.
Program proposals are due by September 1, 2006 and are available from the IEATA’s website. Click to www.iaeta.org or e-mail ieata07@appstate.edu.
Conference information will be posted by August 1, 2006. Click to www.ieata.org or www.conferences-camps.appstate.edu.