Category Archives: Creative Interventions

Try this simple Creative Intervention…

Posted on October 23, 2009 | 2 Comments

music-notes1I’d like to introduce and describe a short and simple Creative Intervention to try on your own.  I developed this CI (Creative Intervention) for use in my Creativity Workshops. 

The goal is to visualize the music you hear and transfer these images onto paper.  It will take about 10 minutes to complete the music-notes1exercise, but may be longer depending on how much time is devoted to your drawing; the musical piece is 5:25 minutes long.

But first, read the short list of instructions and then go for it! 

A few Instructions:

1. The music selected for this particular Creative Intervention is Beethoven’s Pathetique Movement 2 by Freddy Kempf.  I chose Freddy beethovenKempf’s version over other artists for his expressiveness and sensitivity in interpeting this piece.

The link below is to a youtube video.  The goal is to listen with your eyes closed. No peeking to watch Freddy during this exercise; you can watch him later!

Note: It’s important to be in an quiet environment for you to benefit from this exercise.  So, close your office door or wait for better time.

2. Gather your supplies: white paper and drawing/coloring tools in different colors (crayons, colored pencils or markers).  Anything you crayonscan draw with is fine, but make sure you have different colors.

3. Listen to the selected piece by clicking on the link. Remember- keep your eyes closed during the entire musical piece.  The goal is to shut out outside visual images and noises, and focus on you.

While you’re listening, picture how the music would look if you could see it.  What are the colors and shapes you see?  Are there lines?  Is it abstract?  What are the rhythms, the melodies and mood(s) you see?  How does the music make you feel?  Are there words or just colors or images? Don’t worry about drawing anything you may not recognize – that’s not important to this exercise.  Remember, there is no right or wrong way of doing this exercise - just your way.

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      Are you ready to begin?

Increase the volume on your computer to mid-way – Beethoven’s Pathetique Movement 2 is very soft in certain sections.

CLOSE YOUR EYES and listen for the entire duration.  Click the youtube link below and listen to Freddy Kempf’s version Beethoven’s of Pathetique Movement 2.   According to music interpretation,  Pathetique in its entirety is not a sad song piece.   Beethoven wrote this when he found out he was losing his hearing. The first movement is depicting the rage and sorrow he felt. The  second movement (the youtube video below) is depicting the comfort he receives.  The third movement is almost a testament of joy.


Now, draw what you ’saw’ when your eyes were closed.  When you’re finished, look at your drawing for a few minutes.  Don’t be critical about it – it is what it is.  Try this exercise with your favorite musical pieces – rock, alternative, classical, pop, etc.  Compare the 2nd, 3rd drawing with the first.

Creative Interventions are not just for patients…

Creative Interventions should be experienced by all healthcare professionals, not just patients.  Who will benefit?  Nurses, doctors, ancillary nursing personnel, social workers, OT, PT, healthcare managers and executive staff, and academicians.  By experiencing and expanding your own definition of creativity, it will ultimately benefit your patients and your daily interactions with others.

 mhand_stem-cell-garden_sm(stem cell garden, Marti Hand 2008)

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Drawings by patients with lupus…

Posted on October 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

A comment  received on the post “Drawing as a diagnostic tool in lupus patients” expressed interest in seeing some drawings created by lupus patients who participated in the research study (by Katarzyna Nowicka-Sauer).  Below is the reader’s comment:

“It would be interesting to see some of the drawings by the lupus patients! It would take me a bit to figure out how to draw my illness!!! Interesting concept really.”

In response to the comment, below are 3 drawings and their stories taken from the research article (1)…

lupus pt drawing 1

 

 

“My illness had…still has…many faces: In the beginning I used to cry a lot, I was young and my appearance was the most important thing.  I was angry, sad…These teeth represent the horrible pain I used to suffer.  Now I accept my disease… Nevertheless, sometimes these stages come back.” (JJ, 44)

 

 

 

 lupus pt drawing 2

 

 

 

“Lupus has attached many parts of my body.  Sometimes it’s hard to bear it, especially during flares… It’s also a fear: What will happen next?” (BG, 50)

 

 

 

 

 

lupus pt drawing 3

 

 

 

“My illness is like a monster which sometimes bites, but it still has “human shape’ because I hope it will be ‘humane’ for me.”  (CR, 52)

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the researcher, ‘drawing is an unconventional task that makes the patients think about their disease in a different way, far from medical view.  It makes them concentrate on ‘feeling’ and ‘experiencing’ the disease … Although we are used to verbalizing our thoughts and feelings, sometimes, it can be easier to express them in the visual way…”

Note: email me if you want the bibliography

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Your Body as Healer…

Posted on October 2, 2009 | Leave a comment

An article titled “Miracle Survivors,” in Forbes (March 2, 2009), portrays stories of people who have spontaneous remissions from several different types of cancers. Explanations by the medical community range from “…a complete mystery,” “divine intervention,” or “the immune system.”  With regard to the latter explanation, our bodies have all the necessary elements to heal itself. 

Everyone knows who Deepak Chopra  is…here is his explanation and understanding of spontaneous remission taken from intentblog: 

“Essentially remission is based on our understanding of the science of self-repair. Our bodies have learned to heal themselves over millions of years of mhand_bodymindsoulemotionevolutionary time. Our bodies are the best pharmacies in nature. They make antibodies, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, immunomodulators, and anti-cancer drugs in the precise dose at the precise time and for the right taget organ; and all the instructions come in the packaging! The “packaging” is your own inner self - the ultimate and supreme genius which mirrors the wisdom of the universe.  Cognition or thinking, moods, feelings and emotions, behavior, social interactions, personal relationships, environment, diet, and the inner world of consciousness including attention and intentionality all influence the biology of healing.”

Now, back to the Forbes article…

It states that “spontaneous remissions are among the rarest and most mysterious events in medicine, with only several hundred cases that can be considered well documented.”  In 1993, two authors for the Institute of Noetic Sciences, created a database of  medically reported cases of spontaneous remission in the world from more than 3,500 references.  This data shows the ability of our bodies to heal itself is not such a rare event. 

Btw, the authors defined spontaneous remission as “the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of a disease or cancer without medical treatment or treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting  disappearance of disease symptoms or tumor.” 

Activate the body’s self-healing properties with Creative Interventions in Patient Care:

  • Art-making
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Humor
  • Laughing Clubs
  • Art Exhibits with artwork created by patients, families, professional staff
  • Indoor and outdoor gardens
  • Art at the bedside
  • Limitless possibilities

 MHand_cycleswritingpaintpalette1flower-butterfly

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Rx:Listen to Music

Posted on May 29, 2009 | Leave a comment

music-notes2music-notes11music-notes11

Rx: Listen to Music

Is listening to music good for us?  Does music help in healing medical ailments?  Is there science supporting the benefical effects of the arts?  These are just a few questions raised  and being studied by scientists across the globe. 

In a recent New York Times article (March 29, 2009),  Michael Roizen, MD – chief wellness medical officer of the Wellness Institute at the Clevland Clinic – states listening to classical music on a consistent basis suggests “decreases in all-cause mortality, reflecting slower aging of arteries as well as cancer-related and environmental factors.  Attending sports events like soccer or football offers none of these benefits.” (1)   He states he’s not sure if the decrease in all-cause mortality is due to stress relief or other properties. 

Dr. Michael Roizen is also studying the effects of singing to help patients with strokes to relearn language.  Remember the singing1999 movie “Flawless?”  The main character (Robert Deniro) suffers a debilitating stroke and is prescribed to take therapeutic singing lessons for his paralyzed larynx.  His music teacher is his gay next-door neighbor.  The outcome from taking singing lessons is positive, for relearning and regaining speech AND learning tolerance of different lifestyles.

Another researcher in neurocognition of music and language at U of Sussex in England, Stefan Koelsch, is studying the same subject, i.e., music-notes2active music participation by patients suffering from depression.  According to the Mr. Koelsch, “physiologically, it’s perfectly plausible that music would affect not only psychiatric conditions but also endocrine, autonomic and autoimmune disorders.”

The main purposes of the article was to shed light on the collaborative efforts of the music and medical fields to quantify the effects of music on patients diagnosed with certain disease conditions, and highlight several companies creating and marketing propietary music  for ‘medicinal purposes’.   Here are a few interesting points made in the article: unlike prescription medication with known side and adverse effects, listening to music has no side effects; prescribe music as a prescription, just like prescribing a drug or therapeutic modality. And finally, listening to music does affect mood and well-being.

Hippocrates2The therapeutic effects of music  is not new news…the method of delivering music, marketing and money needed for these new elaborate systems are.  WHO is paying for the high-cost of audio systems fit for concert halls in hospitals?  Instead, pay musicians to play in clinical settings.  Music is their passion and their presence will help humanize an environment that can be frightening and dehumanizing.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing recognized the beneficial power of music on the sick. (2)  Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, believed that the human body acts as a whole, so that when an organ is ill, the whole body is being afflicted, ie., humans are psychosomatic entities. (3)

Numerous investigations on the effectiveness of music on adult patients in critical care settings in the 1990′s showed reduced anxiety states (4-6),  physiological relaxation as evidenced by reduced vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate and respirations), improved mood in critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation (7-8), and published accounts indicate critically ill patients enjoy and find music helpful in dealing with the environment and in coping with the critical illness itself .(6,9-10)

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For healthcare professionals working inpatient and outpatient venues, and families with a loved one going through medical treatment, try music as a creative intervention by gathering the following:

  1.  Headset
  2. iPod or CD player
  3. Playlist of the patients’ favorite music – soft, classical or sounds of nature
  4. Play the music on a consistent basis

Here’s my Rx for you…

‘Time to Say Goodbye’

by

Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman

 

Note: email me if you want the bibliography marti@martihand.com

 

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Concierge services in hospitals…

Posted on May 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Back in February 2009, I wrote a post titled ‘Creative Interventions as Patienttinybrain Amenities in Hospitals’ based on an article in BusinessWeek (Feb. 16, 2009).  To summarize, the article cited a RAND marketing study indicating concierge/hospitality services as more desireable than high-quality patient care.  If this is any indication how consumers think and choose their healthcare institutions based only on plush accomodations versus low mortality (death) rates to recover from mild to life-threatening conditions, we are becoming a nation of non-thinkers.  Concierge services does NOT equal high-quality patient care!

As an advocate for integrating creativity and the creative process in healthcare, I believe creating environments conducive to the healing process is a step in the right direction.  But concierge services?  How do these services help patients and monet_givernyfamilies heal?  Are there any long-term benefits of  hotel-like services for patients?  Or have hospitals strayed from their original missions and visions?  I believe the latter may be true, i.e., hospitals have lost their original vision of healing the sick in an attempt to gain market share, but at least we’ll be able to attend a cooking class at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.

                                          (Garden at Giverny, 1900 Claude Monet)

And this trend of hospitals offering concierge services termed ‘amentities’ is growing.  In July 2008, USA News had an article titled, “Who Says a Hospital Stay Can’t Be Fun?”  It shed light on the growing movement of hospitals to function more like hotels by offering amenities, such as gourmet dining, fine art, field trips, cooking and gardening classes, afternoon tea service, Wi-Fi connection, and much, much more!

Here’s a few examples of amentities offerings at some hospitals across the US: Century City Doctors Hospital in Los Angelos’ markets it’s menu created by Wolfgang Puck…installed flat-screen TVs in all rooms…M.D. Anderson Cancer Center offers patients field trips to local museums…cooking classes at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.  I wonder if patients attending a cooking class or taking a field trip actually need to be in the hospital.  WHO is paying for all this luxury?

music-notes1

Let’s offer Creative Interventions as Patient Amenities.  At least, there is scientific data to support the benefits of engaging in the creative process and the arts.  Read ’The Science Supporting Creativity in Healthcare’ under TOPICS on the left side.

 

Creative Interventions = Patient Amenities

Creative Interventions = Smart Marketing Strategy

Creative Interventions = Cost-Effective Treatment Modalities

catherinelindaMHand_nurses fingerprint_blue sm

 Activate the body’s self-healing properties by exploring the  relationship between art making and self-care with

Creative Interventions in Healthcare:

  • Art-making
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Humor
  • Laughter clubs
  • Art exhibits with artwork created by patients, families, professional staff
  • Indoor and outdoor healing gardens
  • Art at the bedside
  • Creative interventions for healthcare professionals
  • Integrative medicine modalities

Blair Sadler, former President & CEO of Rady Children’s Hospital & Health Center (San Diego) and strong supporter of the arts in healthcare said the following…

“The arts optimize patient care and can create a strategic business advantage by differentiating themselves from competitors, and effectively garner support for starting and maintaining art programs.”

waterfall

Nature…the ultimate healer.

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Use of Drawing in Disability Research

Posted on April 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

I just read an interesting article on the use of drawings as a way to understand the personal experience of persons with spinal cord injuries.  The drawings were part of a larger study focused on the community integration and participation of adults with spinal cord injury. 

But, first some facts and figures on spinal cord injuries (SCI) from the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center:

  • A spinal cord injury usually begins with a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures or dislocates vertebrae. The damage begins at the spinalcord1moment of injury when displaced bone fragments, disc material, or ligaments bruise or tear into spinal cord tissue. Most injuries to the spinal cord don’t completely sever it. Instead, an injury is more likely to cause fractures and compression of the vertebrae, which then crush and destroy the axons, extensions of nerve cells that carry signals up and down the spinal cord between the brain and the rest of the body. An injury to the spinal cord can damage a few, many, or almost all of these axons. Some injuries will allow almost complete recovery. Others will result in complete paralysis.
  • There is an estimated 10,000 – 12,000 spinal cord injuries every year in the US.  
  • A quarter of a million Americans are currently living with spinal cord injuries.
  • Costs: The average yearly health care and living expenses and the estimated lifetime costs that are directly attributable to SCI vary greatly according to severity of injury.

sci-table1

  • Since 2005, the most common cause of all spinal cord injuries are due to car accidents followed by falls (27%) followed by violent encounters sci(gunshot wounds). The rest are due to sporting accidents, and work-related accidents.  Interestingly, the proportion of injuries due to sports decreased over time while the proportion of injuries due to falls has increased. Acts of violence caused 13.3% of spinal cord injuries prior to 1980, and peaked between 1990 and 1999 at 24.8% before declining to only 15.3% since 2005.
  • The average age at injury is 39.5 years.
  • Since 2000, over 75% (77.8%) spinal cord injuries reported to the national database have occurred among males.

(Source: Facts and Figures at a Glance, updated February 2009. National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center)

  Now, back to the article…

The research project titled, ‘Images of self and spinal cord injury: exploring drawing as a visual method in disability research,’ (VCross K, Kabel A, Lysack C. Visual Studies, Vol.21, No.2, Oct 2006, p183-193)used drawings by persons with SCI which provided unique insights into the personal meanings of spinal cord injury and how this injury is understood and represented to others.  The purpose of the study was to use paticipants’ own drawings as a useful adjunct to the traditional narrative approach.   The 2 specific questions to elicit drawings were “Draw your self.” and ”Draw how you see spinal cord injury in your mind.”

Drawings of ‘Self’

The drawings fell into 3 categories: 1) drawings that included a wheelchair; 2) drawings that didn’t include a wheelchair, 3) drawings where ‘the self’ was depicted as a head or a head and torso only, with no reference to paralyzed limbs.  Below are the social researchers’ analyses of the drawings:

  • depth and intensity of mhand_bodymindsoulemotionparticipants’ feelings went unrecognized until the drawing task.  I am not surprised by this at all…engaging in the creative process allows the spirit/soul to assume control and communicates with the body, mind and emotions via complex biochemical pathways.  See my diagram to the right ->
  • Participants didn’t deny that their body had deficits, they did not consider those deficits important or relevant to ‘who they really were.’
  • Physical disabilites invites misperceptions by non-disabled persons as ‘not normal,’ based on their appearance rather than on ‘who they really are.’ 
  • Participants with SCI recognized that ultimately they need to adjust their own impressions and perceptions of disabled persons.

Drawings of “Spinal Cord Injury”

One of the goals of the study was to understand how individuals disabled by SCI understood the injury.  The majority of drawings fell into 3 groups: 1) anatomical drawings, 2) metaphorical drawings, and 3) abstract drawings. Here are the findings:

  • SCI represented a literal ‘break’ of the bones and  nerves
  • Feelings of powerlessness to change or reshape  social interactions and negative social attitudes about disability.
  • Abled-body persons more accepting if persons with SCI downplayed their disabilities.  There is pressure to conform to non-disabled societal expectations and views of ‘normal’

music-notes31paintpalette1writingmusic-notes1

Of interest…

The U-M Model Spinal Cord Injury Care System, part of the University of Michigan Health System, is one of the 14 institutions to be classified as a Model Spinal Cord Injury Center by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).  Interestingly, University of Michigan Health System has a comprehensive arts-in-healthcare program titled “Gifts of Art.”  On their website is this description:

“During times of stress and illness, the arts have the power to nurture and engage. Gifts of Art programs utilize the arts to assist and enhance the healing process, reduce stress, support human dignity and renew the spirit.”

If one of the purposes of healthcare is promoting health, wellness and recovery – why aren’t there more health systems, including public health systems, more open-minded and holistic like University of Michigan Health System?  Healing and caring for people is more than attending to the physical body…it’s addressing the whole person – body, mind, spirit, emotions.

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Listening to Music: another Creative Intervention for patients

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” ~billy joel

music-notes1music-notes1music-notes1

Like art, many believe music to be a universal language…that there is no need for words.  To the listener, the effects of music is both simultaneously individual and universal, i.e., communing with oneself and the larger commUNITY.

Music can induce both physiological and psychological responses in you.  The use of music to promote health and well-being is referred to by many as music therapy.  However, I prefer the term ‘Creative Intervention or Music Intervention,’ over music therapy.  Why?  Because, the word ‘therapy’ is most often associated with the behavioral music-notes6health field where healthcare professionals have expertise in the art of helping a patient psychologically.   A study of an arts support program concluded the word ‘therapy’ may be threatening to patients because most do not view themselves as needing ‘therapy.’ (1)   But, I’m not going to quibble about choosing a couple words; the most important thing is implementing music as a creative modality in healthcare so patients, families, healthcare professionals, management team and local communities all benefit.

Benefits of Listening to Music

Several studies conducted by nursing academicans present the use of music as an effective, noninvasive intervention in creating a healing environment to promote health and well-being.  Below are the main points on the physiological and psychological responses in listening to music (2-4):

  • Themes identified in art literature are similar with the values in nursing theory, i.e., beauty, personal sensitivity, celebration of life, compassion, consciousness, patience, dignity, spiritual healing, and expression of human experience
  • The arts (music) have a liberalizing effect…stimulating artistic creativity and creativity of the body in wellness and healingmusic-notes41
  • Music relieves anxiety, pain, increases feelings of relaxation, heightens the immune system, decreases blood pressure, pulse and breathing
  • Music affects emotions via the limbic system where memories are evoked in response to sensory stimuli
  • Reduces stress levels and feelings of isolation
  • Music may stimulate the release of endorphins – the body’s natural opiates and associated with pain relief and pleasurable emotions
  • Improves motivation and elevates mood.
  • Fosters comfort in uncomfortable situations
  • Listening to music increased salivary immunoglobulin A, serum melatonin levels, and decreased muscle rigidty.
  • Allows patients a sense of control in an environment that often controls them

music-notes21music-notes1music-notes21music-notes1

Another qualitative study confirms the benefits of music with patients with advanced or end stage cancer at a cancer center in Australia.  Patients’ and family comments included “aliveness,” “expanded consciousness in a context where life’s vulnerability is constatnly apparent.” (5)

Music offers the nursing profession the chance to explore new strategies to enhance their care, and can be part of nursing’s healing modalities in meeting patient outcomes. Nursing interventions have always been to support, facilitate, and validate; the use of music and other creative activities in healthcare settings is no different.

To heal means not only to become well, but whole…bringing the person back in harmony with oneself, including physically, cognitively, spiritually and emotionally.

Author, Daniel Pink, concludes in his book A Whole New Mind: why right-brainers will rule the future that “the detached scientific method is no longer sufficient in medical treatment and care…approach to patient care is changing from detached concern to empathy…nursing is an empathic profession and will be one of the key professions in an age where many technical services are being outsourced, e.g. x-rays outsourced to Bangalore radiologists, etc.  Empathy – touch, presence, and comfort cannot be outsourced; it requires emotional intelligence and compassion.”

Note: if you want the bibliography – email me.

 

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The story of 2 paintings…

Posted on March 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

This week’s post deviates from the usual focus of this blog of the need for  integrating creativity and the arts in healthcare.  Instead, I write about 2 paintings created in 2004 titled, “Steely Resolve 1″ and “Steely Resolve 2.”  This is their story…

A friend of mine, Donna, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and had gone through the usual course of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  When we met again during the spring of 2004, we updated each other on life…she about her cancer treatments and family, and I on the new paintings I was working on – the synergy series.  At the time, she was experiencing new pain in her hip and lower back, and was scheduled for an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). 

Donna wanted to know more about the new synergy series which captures the synergy existing between the sciences, nature, illness and disease, and human and universal spirits.  In short, I ended up with her chest x-rays with her saying, “maybe you can use these in your art.”  Btw, the x-rays were taken months after she had completed chemotherapy and radiation.

I looked at the x-rays and laid them down.  As an artist, I have to let the creative process unfold and percolate, which means it may take a few hours, a few days or a few months to several years. As a nurse, I didn’t like what I was seeing on the x-rays.  A few days later, looking again at the chest x-rays, a medical report fell out of the large envelope.  While reading it, I was so overwhelmed with the gravity of my friend’s situation, diagnosis, prognosis, and her age.  From that moment, I knew how I would utilize the x-ray images.  mhand_steely-resolve-1-and-taxol-sm

What evolved is the painting titled “Steely Resolve 1“ 

What do YOU experience when you look at the painting? 

The chest (thoracic) is the image taken from my friend’s x-rays.  The circular images represent Taxol, a drug used to treat breast cancer.  The vertebraes are painted silver for the color of steel. And the dark area in the verterbrae is where the cancer had spread and therefore, the pain in her lower back.

The most important thing I wanted to convey was hope, thus the colors of the rainbow                                                           (Steely Resolve 1, Marti Hand, 2004)              for the background and outlining the body - universal hope and the fighting human spirit. 

After completing the painting, several people commented that all they saw was a big question mark.  This never occurred to me during the entire painting process, i.e., I never saw the question mark. I did not want my friend’s life to be in question or a question mark.  So, I immediately began another painting - of her healed.  The title of the 2nd painting is ‘Steely Resolve 2.’

mhand_steely-resolve-2-sm

                                                (Steely Resolve 2, 2004, Marti Hand) 

Note: To see larger images of the paintings, go to www.martihand.com and click ‘synergy series.’

For decades, the scientific and medical communities have focused on discovering a cure for cancer - without success.   It’s time to try or include something new to the treatment plan – offer creative interventions to patients and families!   Put care into the equation – caring for the whole person, i.e., body-mind-spirit-emotion with creative interventions. 

“When you’re treating advanced breast cancer, you’re not looking for a cure, you’re looking for stability and quality of life.” (Patient being treated at Vassar’s Dyson Center for Cancer, Poughkeepsie Journal)

Remember the term psychoneuroimmunology?  If not, read ‘The Science Supporting Creativity in Healthcare’ listed under TOPICS in the left sidebar.

 

For Donna…

PEACE  and  LOVE

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Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Pierre Auguste Renoir and art-making…

Posted on December 17, 2008 | 1 Comment

renoir_-_luncheon_at_the_boating_party1 

 (Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881)

Just the other day, I attended a conference on evaluating disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.  The lecturer was a rheumatologist from the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY.  The main points that ’stuck’ with me were the following:

  • the importance of a multi-dimensional health assessment completed by the patient identifying level of physical functioning and pain levels
  • the need to gather evidence-based outcomes of medical treatment
  • treating the whole patient, not just the disease

 Also, there is a link between premature death of patients with rheumatoid artritis (RA) and social deprivation (1).  This may be related to a number reasons such as delay in seeking medical attention; vulnerability for the disease to get worse due to other medical problems; different medical treatment and mangement by physicians; not following the medical treatment plan by the patient.   Social deprivation has been also linked to ongoing depression which affesuzannects 13-20% of RA patients (2).  Depression in RA patients is associated with pain, disability from work, poor adherence to treatment and sometimes suicide (3).

To focus on patient-centered outcomes, clinicans are encouraging patients to attend self-care programs and local support groups.  Self-care management programs’ goal is to control the disease (RA) from getting worse by managing the pain, damage and disability of RA, but also to provide psychological, educational and employment opportunities (4).                                                                                                      (1st time painter)

Patients with rheumatic conditions that participate in support groups seem to experience a decrease in feelings of loneliness, achieve new relationships, improve skills in eliciting and accepting social support, have better daily functioning, and may have an increase in life satisfaction outcomes (5).  There are other avenues of support that can accomplish similar goals. The process of creating art has been proposed to enhance cognitive abilities, increase self awareness, help cope with symptoms of a physical disorder, and gain relief from emotional distress such as anger, loss, depression, worry and anxiety in certain chronic conditions (5,6). 

I want to re-emphasize that creative interventions are not only benefical for patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, but cancer and chronic disease management, disease prevention – art, dance and musical interventions can be helpful when treating brain injury, dementia, cardiovascular accidents, depression, beareavement, pain management, peds, sexual abuse, and AIDS (7).

Note:  I did not do the periodic research on rheumatoid arthritis above; a rheumatologist  (Dr. Ines Colmegna) working at Emory did.  However, if you want the bibliography, email me at marti@martihand.com.

Pierre Auguste Renoir

The famous French painter Renoir, whose works adorn many museums, suffered from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis during the last three decades of his life. He suffered his first attack in 1898, and his joints became severely deformed later.

In 1904, Renoir weighed only 105 pounds and was barely able to sit. By 1910 he could not even walk using crutches and he became a prisoner in his own wheelchair.   His hands were completely deformed, like the claws of a bird.  A gauze bandage was used to prevent his fingernails from growing into the flesh. Renoir was unable to pick up a paintbrush at this point and it had to be wedged between his fingers.  Still, he continued to paint everyday and produced some of his greatest masterpieces.

Painting was almost a physical need and sometimes a cure, as if Renoir wanted to create on the canvas those things which he had to miss in real life because of his disability. Even when he woke at night crying in pain, he asked for some painting material and started to make small paintings on wood – see below.

renoir-on-wood1

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With Gratitude…

Posted on November 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

thanksgiving1

Celebrating Thanksgiving, for me, is a time to spend with family, close friends, and especially remembering to be grateful – grateful for all the abundance that life has to offer…grateful to live in the United States despite all the current financial and political problems…grateful for all the generous (of heart, mind and spirit) people I know and will get to know…grateful to be a nurse and artist…hopeful that decisionmakers in healthcare will come to understand, believe and value the tangible and intangible benefits that creativity and the arts offer to patients, families, staff and the local communities they serve…and this is just the short list. 

What are you grateful and hopeful for?

And now I leave you with a quote from Franklin D Roosevelt…

fdr

“We are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of our own minds.” ~franklin d roosevelt (and a few words paraphrased by me)

(Btw, the above picture is an old book I transformed to a book of quotes)

Have a Creative and Grateful Thanksgiving holiday! :)

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