Arts as instruments of healing
By Patrice M. Jones Tribune staff reporter
Published May 2, 2006
Even at a conference where artistic expression was around every corner, it was difficult not to stop and stare at Nancy O'Brien as she played her harp. O'Brien is not a nurse or a doctor but the face of an evolving health-care industry in which the serene sounds of her melodious instrument, poetry written by patients, even soft lighting and comfy surroundings are believed to be important parts of healing. O'Brien, a 51-year-old music therapist from Joliet, could go on for hours about her success stories -- the angry man at a rehab facility who was so agitated when she first met him she thought he might punch her.Or the children who received cardiac catheterization as she played to calm them during their procedures, or the patients in one psychiatric facility who were allowed to experiment with music -- all were soothed, comforted and even healed by the power of music and art.Those involved with health care -- whether health-care providers, artists or architects -- have been saying for decades that artistic expression and welcoming environments can make a pivotal difference for ailing patients, but now that message is going mainstream.The statistics touted at the 15th annual Society for the Arts in Healthcare conference last week in Chicago were impressive: In a survey of 2,500 hospitals, 96 percent reported that they invested in the arts to serve patients; 78 percent use the arts to create a healing environment and a majority employ arts coordinators."We are now moving towards a dramatic shift from arts in health care being something hospitals should do to something they have got to do," said Blair L. Sadler, president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego.Sadler, a featured speaker at the conference, pointed to a variety of empirical research.One such study included recent findings in a joint project between Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University, Sadler said, which showed that 88 percent of children receiving CT scans and 98 percent of children receiving an echocardiogram needed no sedation when a guitarist played songs during their procedure.What's more, the music's calming effects on the children cut down on the time it took to conduct the procedures, and over a year's time saved the hospital $250,000 because of reduced costs for nursing and other staff."So a big part of this change in attitude is that now those in health care see having art makes business sense as well as helps patients," he said. Gay Hanna, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Society for the Arts in Healthcare, said the field has come a long way since the 1970s when as a college student she walked the sterile, depressing hallways of a Norfolk, Va., hospital. Now a massive building boom to upgrade or construct new hospital facilities across the nation is giving the arts in health care even more of a push.The conference highlighted a variety of innovative programs -- from a "healing garden" at one Oregon health facility to a program that let Cleveland youth use cameras to chronicle the effects of HIV on their families. The featured programs also included Chicago-based Snow City Arts Foundation, which works inside three area hospitals to provide arts education programs for children. O'Brien said she was impressed by the way her field is changing."There is, of course, a need for more research, but I always knew what I was doing was working," she said, "because I have seen it help people for years."
Published May 2, 2006
Even at a conference where artistic expression was around every corner, it was difficult not to stop and stare at Nancy O'Brien as she played her harp. O'Brien is not a nurse or a doctor but the face of an evolving health-care industry in which the serene sounds of her melodious instrument, poetry written by patients, even soft lighting and comfy surroundings are believed to be important parts of healing. O'Brien, a 51-year-old music therapist from Joliet, could go on for hours about her success stories -- the angry man at a rehab facility who was so agitated when she first met him she thought he might punch her.Or the children who received cardiac catheterization as she played to calm them during their procedures, or the patients in one psychiatric facility who were allowed to experiment with music -- all were soothed, comforted and even healed by the power of music and art.Those involved with health care -- whether health-care providers, artists or architects -- have been saying for decades that artistic expression and welcoming environments can make a pivotal difference for ailing patients, but now that message is going mainstream.The statistics touted at the 15th annual Society for the Arts in Healthcare conference last week in Chicago were impressive: In a survey of 2,500 hospitals, 96 percent reported that they invested in the arts to serve patients; 78 percent use the arts to create a healing environment and a majority employ arts coordinators."We are now moving towards a dramatic shift from arts in health care being something hospitals should do to something they have got to do," said Blair L. Sadler, president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego.Sadler, a featured speaker at the conference, pointed to a variety of empirical research.One such study included recent findings in a joint project between Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University, Sadler said, which showed that 88 percent of children receiving CT scans and 98 percent of children receiving an echocardiogram needed no sedation when a guitarist played songs during their procedure.What's more, the music's calming effects on the children cut down on the time it took to conduct the procedures, and over a year's time saved the hospital $250,000 because of reduced costs for nursing and other staff."So a big part of this change in attitude is that now those in health care see having art makes business sense as well as helps patients," he said. Gay Hanna, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Society for the Arts in Healthcare, said the field has come a long way since the 1970s when as a college student she walked the sterile, depressing hallways of a Norfolk, Va., hospital. Now a massive building boom to upgrade or construct new hospital facilities across the nation is giving the arts in health care even more of a push.The conference highlighted a variety of innovative programs -- from a "healing garden" at one Oregon health facility to a program that let Cleveland youth use cameras to chronicle the effects of HIV on their families. The featured programs also included Chicago-based Snow City Arts Foundation, which works inside three area hospitals to provide arts education programs for children. O'Brien said she was impressed by the way her field is changing."There is, of course, a need for more research, but I always knew what I was doing was working," she said, "because I have seen it help people for years."
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