Program brings arts to patients

Mary Johnson doesn't wear a white lab coat or a stethoscope. She doesn't even carry a prescription pad. But she is one of the most sought-after figures on the fourth-floor cardiac unit at HealthPark Medical Center in South Fort Myers.

Instead of pills and procedures, Johnson deals in paintbrushes and smiles. As a volunteer for the Arts in Healthcare program at Lee Memorial Health System, Johnson brings benefits of arts to patients recovering from cardiatric surgery.

"Art is wonderful for the patients because they get to use their imaginations," she said. "I get so much pleasure out of making someone else feel good. That, to me, is more beneficial to me than even the patient."

Johnson knows all about the hospital blues — that despondency, depression and sometimes even hopelessness — that comes along with facing serious medical challenges. She has fought cancer three times, survived heart failure and lives with the daily struggle of diabetes. But you won't find this 74-year-old dynamo lounging on a couch feeling sorry for herself. For more than three years since she moved to Fort Myers, she has given hours and hours of her time to bring her special brand of art to those who need its healing touch the most.

"I remember being in the hospitals up north and there were no volunteers to talk to you, nothing to do," she said, "and this hospital (HealthPark) is so different. They really care about doing whatever is best for the patients."

With a 17-year involvement in the arts, from displaying her art in New York City galleries and Hampton shows to judging competitions and teaching art classes, Johnson took the technique of "blow art" and tweaked it to make it as appropriate as possible for the patents. Using watercolor inks dripped onto water-saturated watercolor paper, Johnson then teaches the patients to blow puffs of air through straws to make unique kaleidoscope patterns in the paint.

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Using watercolor paper and inks and a straw, Arts in Healthcare volunteer Mary Johnson helps patients engage their minds and hone their creativity while giving them something to look forward to.

It definitely makes a difference for the patients when they get to spend time with Mary, and not just for the arts," said Tia Pontiff, cardiothoracic care coordinator at HealthPark. "Mary has been a hospital patient herself, and a lot of times it's that conversation — that personal level encouragement — that makes a difference."

Pontiff also said many times patients will feel more comfortable talking with a volunteer like Johnson than they would with a nurse or doctor.

With a sweet smile and an infectious laugh, Johnson may seem like everyone's sweet aunt, but there is a down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is side to her that keeps patients from falling into the easy trap of self-pity.

"I've had a couple cases where people are really depressed and talking about giving up," she said. "And I tell them 'what are you talking about? You're insane. Look at me, I'm walking around and doing fine.'"

She said if a person isn't happy, he or she might as well give up, because attitude is everything when it comes to surviving a major medical difficulty.

Whether artwork is combined with a smile, an understanding shoulder or a kick in the pants, participation and interaction with Johnson and other artist-volunteers for the Arts in Healthcare program at Lee Memorial.

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Mary Johnson, front, spends time with post-op patients on the cardiac wing at HealthPark, teaching them art techniques and providing conversation and companionship. "What the volunteers in the arts program bring to the patients is priceless," said Sonia Arledge Lomano, back.

"Attitude is everything," Johnson believes. "You can usually tell the ones that will thrive from the ones that won't just because of their attitude — and arts can improve attitude"

That belief is becoming more widely accepted in healthcare facilities across the United States. A recent survey showed that nearly 48 percent of hospitals in America have some sort of arts program, and arts coordinator is becoming a common staff position at most hospitals.

Sonia Arledge Lomano fills that spot at Lee Memorial Health System, and the Arts in Healthcare program in Lee County was her brainchild nearly 10 years ago. Moving from Alabama, where she had started a similar arts program at the hospital she worked at there, Lozano's first proposal as the new director of marketing for the Rehab Hospital was to begin a disabled artist gallery at the hospital.

From that small beginning, and one small gallery at Lee Memorial Hospital, Lomano's brainchild has grown to see permanent galleries at each hospital campus, the inclusion of area professional artists as teachers and volunteers, an art studio and a thriving bedside arts program.

Following extensive research supporting the benefits of arts in healthcare, the bedside program brings artist volunteers in to share their talents with the patents. From a journalist working with women suffering from troubled pregnancies to a cartoonist working on the pediatric floor, every effort is made by Lomano and hospital staff to give patients access to the arts.

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Sonia Arledge Lomano, coordinator for the Arts in Healthcare program at Lee Memorial Health System, said the art community, including area schools, is very supportive of their efforts. This four-panel piece on display at HealthPark was a joint project between students at Cypress Lake Center for the Arts and patients in the Children's Hospital.

"I knew there was a value in arts," she said. "I am grateful to work somewhere that is willing to offer and support a program where the whole concept is to combine the healing arts with the expressive arts."

One of the most recognized and beneficial area of arts in healthcare is music. A recent study published in the "Journal of Advanced Nursing" showed that patients who listened to music in addition to traditional pain treatment experienced a 20 percent decrease in perceived pain, compared to a 2 percent increase in perceived pain experienced by study control-group members receiving only traditional methods of pain control.

Lomano herself has seen the magic of music at work. She recalled a gentleman who had come in to donate blood for his wife's imminent surgery. Due to increased blood pressure, hospital medical staff told him he would not be able to donate. Taking the advice of a nurse, the man made his way downstairs at HealthPark to the soothing atrium where he sat and listened to the live piano music provided by volunteers. Within 20 minutes, his blood pressure had dropped enough to allow him to donate blood for his wife's operation, Lomano said.

"Our arts program is a healing program and it benefits so many people," Lomano said. "Art is so therapeutic, and to be able to be able to offer it to someone who is so emotionally down because of what has happened to them, and to see their sprits lifted up is a wonderful thing."