Using 'evidence-based art'

 

We recently  again saw the international movie I Remember Better When I Paint, which shows how the arts can  greatly improve the lives of people suffering from dementia.

The movie’s origins go back to co-director Berna Huebner’s watching her late mother, the distinguished Chicago painter Hilda Gorenstein, who had slipped into a depressed and anxious senility, become reengaged and reenergized when  young art students got her to resume painting.

One of the many watercolors she did  while in this program, with the cooperation of students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is above.

 More and more healthcare experts have come to understand how art can promote healing.

A FierceHealthcare  report looks at  how Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, in Pennsylvania, Lee Memorial Hospital, in Florida, and the Mayo Clinic  operation in Arizona have incorporated art in their facilities and in care delivery.

The news service reported that  for the past 20 years, “art — including paintings, sculptures and music–has taken on an important role in healthcare. Watercolors and abstract photographs often line the once-barren walls of hospital corridors. And harpists and pianists often play soothing music in hospital lobbies.”

“The use of art to help heal patients dates back to Florence Nightingale, according to the Center for Health Design’s “Guide to Evidence-Based Art.” Nightingale’s 1860 Notes for Nursing describes the importance of beauty to the body, as well as the mind, the study states.”

The FierceHealthcare  report looks at  how Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, in Pennsylvania, Lee Memorial Hospital, in Florida, and the Mayo Clinic  operation in Arizona use art in their facilities and in care delivery.

-- Robert Whitcomb