Think about the last time you were sick and away from home. The stress of being in a foreign environment likely only made you feel worse. Now imagine that foreign environment is a hospital. That sense of discomfort is driving hospitals and medical care facilities to embrace the healing power of the arts through creative activities and counseling programs with certified art therapists to complement the state-of-the-art medical treatment available.

Of the more than 30 hospitals in the bi-state region, several are offering arts-related programs. SSM Health at Home’s Peaceful Harmony at Home program offers music therapy to hospice patients, Mercy’s Healing Through the Arts provides a series of free art workshops for patients and their families, and the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center offers art as part of recreation therapy for veterans.

Creative art activities, like drawing, painting, knitting and musical lessons, are offered in hospitals as a way to serve the very young to those in hospice, battling both physical and psychological ailments.

"When engaged in the arts, patients are able to take their minds off of their treatment for just a little bit."

- Sarah Colby, Barnes-Jewish Hospital Arts + Healthcare program director

Margaret Chastain, who oversees the art program at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital in Maryland Heights, says art helps patients develop physical coordination and sensory stimulation while aiding a faster physical and emotional recovery.

“It serves as an introduction to the world of art as well as providing art’s healing services and bringing smiles to the faces of all involved,” explained Chastain. “Especially in the case of children, numerous skills and knowledge are gained through the program including self-esteem and self-expression.”

Ranken Jordan’s art program addresses the concept of “Care Beyond the Bedside” to provide the highest quality care to its patients and their families. The results of the program are shown in the hospital’s Inspiration Gallery, which features patients’ artwork available for purchase. Proceeds support Ranken Jordan programs.

Sarah Colby created the Arts + Healthcare program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 2007. An artist and former art educator, Colby says the program and its art room are used daily by patients, but also by hospital staff, medical students and spiritual advisors.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital offers medical staff “Compassion Fatigue and Building Resilience” classes, which help participants recognize and address the symptoms and effects of compassion fatigue.

“In any kind of high stress profession like medicine, compassion fatigue really wears on you,” explained Colby, who leads an art activity for each class. “Creative diversion or creative activity can break the spell or help you find a voice you didn’t know you had.”

The Arts + Healthcare program also includes a public music program with a robust volunteer core of musicians ranging from community volunteers to Washington University School of Medicine students. Colby also notes that many former patients volunteer with the program as a way to give back.

For some patients, the treatment goes beyond a soothing activity to counseling sessions with a certified art therapist.

“Art therapy is like mental health counseling, but we’re using art as a primary mode of healing,” said Megan Robb, graduate program director of art therapy counseling at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. “Art therapists think about sensory, kinesthetic, metaphoric and occupational therapy use of materials. It’s not always about seeing an image and analyzing it.”

Robb adds that with art therapy, patients are often able to communicate trauma in a way they cannot with words. “A traumatic experience is rarely stored in the logical, sequential side of our brain. Art can bypass that cognitive lens to get into the visual memory part of your brain.”

Engagement with creative activities can decrease anxiety, lower stress and strenghten immune systems, according to a 2010 report in the American Journal of Public Health.

Art therapy is not a new profession, but incorporating artistic activity and art therapy into patient care is on the rise.

“We have work to do in terms of research in our field, but we are in a really interesting place,” said Robb. “There is a lot of great research coming out of programs all over the world.”

To keep art happening and create a ripple effect of positive change, including improved health and wellness, across the bi-state region, make a gift to A&E today. 

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