It's All About Healing

Abstract

Imagine walking into a hospital to the sound of soft music, seeing beautiful images on the wall, looking out of the window into a lovely garden, reading about an artist in residence who is a painter or a violinist, glancing up to see a kinetic installation swaying gently. Now imagine that space slowly fi lling up with beeping monitors, wheelchairs, rolling beds, portable IVs, and people-busy nurses, doctors, worried family members, and patients, so many patients. Imagine yourself as one of these patients-the pain, the stress, the anxiety. And then imagine yourself focusing on that one image, that one note, that one view, those few words, that one thought that you can hold onto and tune everything else out. Th at is art.Th e power of art to heal is not a new idea. Every culture has a history of the arts and a belief that they lift the spirits. It is also an ancient belief across cultures that the mind and the body are connected, and so what lifts the spirits can arguably heal the body. Th is belief has been put to the test in healthcare today. Art therapy is an established alternative therapy based in the therapeutic impact of creating art. Drama, music, and dance movement therapy are also recognized as treatment forms with compelling support in the medical literature. On the heels of art therapy, which requires a trained art therapist, are other art initiatives where an artist might share his or her art or facilitate patient participation in the arts to improve patient mood and perceptions. Artist-in-residence programs are common in hospitals and involve the community, patients, and staff to make living in the hospital, or living with an illness, more bearable.Unfortunately, an artist or an art therapist can spend only a few hours with a patient (or a stressed family member or staff ). Although the impact of an art intervention can be powerful during this time and have a lingering eff ect afterward, there remains a large body of time that patients and care providers are left to their own means, and their only companion is their environment. Th e art that becomes part of this environment-regardless of the modality-can off er an opportunity to escape from the circumstances of hospitalization (via distraction), as well as to cope with it (via immersion).Th ere is no dearth of distractions in the healthcare environment: televisions, magazines, Internet kiosks, the incessant intercom, a constant stream of patients and staff . But only a few of these are positive distractions, which can take a person's mind away from stress, anxiety, and pain, however briefl y. Th ere is some compelling literature on the impact of positive distractions on short-term stress and pain perception (also discussed in one of the articles in this issue). Interestingly, despite a growing literature on its detrimental eff ects, the television remains popular in health environments. Perhaps this is because it is associated with the one remote that patients control in the hospital.In an age of connectivity, with a growing number of distractions available, we also have to ask the question, is a deluge of distractions really appropriate in healthcare environments? Being in a hospital should arguably be a time of peace, of refl ection, because every person in the hospital (patients as well as staff ) needs to garner the emotional resources to tackle tough times. Perhaps this is where art and carefully selected positive distractions can play a role. Th ey can help create environments that are experiential and immersive, which can go beyond mindless distractions to creating mindful, intentional, and experiences. Unfortunately, the moment we use the term art we meet a hurdle early on; there is no real consensus on what constitutes what is art, and whether good art is really healing art.So let's leave the discussion about labels aside. Let's keep it simple and say that any element of the environment that appeals to one or more of the senses and provides a portal for a person to escape into or draw strength from during a stressful condition falls under the umbrella of art and positive distractions. …