The Art Of Healing

The Art of Healing programme, an initiative that aims to use the arts as a form of therapy to soothe patients’ mind and body and help them on their path to recovery was launched in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) on 6 February 2006. Through the arts, the hospital is transformed to a warm, welcoming and enriching environment for patients, families, staff and visitors.

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Overview

The hospital uses the arts to help distract patients from their ailments, express their feelings and reduce anxiety. Through this, the hospital aims that there will be an improvement in patients’ blood pressure and intake of pain medication, which in turn should translate to faster recovery and a shorter length of hospital stay.

TTSH believes that replacing fear with hope is the essence of modern medicine and art acts as a complementary medicine. While conventional medicine focuses on treating the body’s diseases, it does not treat the patient’s emotions and mind. This is where art exhibitions (paintings, pottery, wire sculptures, etc) and performances (orchestras, big bands, string quartets, plays, dances, etc) can help. The hospital ensures that the Art of Healing programme is an on-going project where activities are unveiled regularly.

Additional objectives are to promote TTSH as a centre of holistic healing of mind and body, and to transform the hospital environment from a traditionally sterile, cold and fearful one to a warm, non-threatening and welcoming place of healing. Using the arts as a platform for its intrinsic value (art as a healing property and as objects of beauty) and its extrinsic values (symbolic of the TTSH’s history of healing honed over the past 160 years), the programme looks towards the holistic healing of patients on all levels. The programme provides an enriching multi-cultural experience for patients and staff and welcomes artists of all art forms to be a part of these performances. Through the use of art to promote healing of patients, the programme’s vision of adding years of healthy life to the community is further strengthened.


Research

The article “The Arts of Healing,” which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (vol. 281, no.19, pp.1779-1781) in May 1999, gives examples of what images and creative environments can do. Articles in medical journals such as JAMA have researched the correlation between using art and how that effects persons’ blood pressure, health status and length of hospital stay. Nature imagery reduces anxiety and relaxes patients. This makes them more receptive and responsive to treatment. Viewing nature imagery also reduces systolic blood pressure and pulse, helps to redirect negative thought and sustains interest, while decreasing boredom, reducing intake of pain medication and length of hospital stays.


Roger Ulrich, PhD, director and professor of the Center of Health Systems and Design in the College of Architecture at Texas A & M University, conducted experiments in which he measured the effects of art on medical outcomes. 
In his research, he makes the important distinction that not all art can benefit patients. Only “psychologically appropriate art” can benefit patients by improving blood pressure, anxiety, intake of pain medication and length of hospital stay. His study also shows that some art styles aren’t right in health care setting because they can have negative effects on patients.

Projects & Developments

• Healing Sky Garden, a powerfully visual glass sculpture, launched on 17 July 2006, comprising a cluster of glass orchids, a "healing skyway" made up of crystal flowers, clear glass bubbles, coloured glass discs and an amber moon with a stylised phoenix rising.

• Orchid Botanica, a floral sanctuary, launched on 27 July 2007, that offers relaxation and rejuvenation to patients, visitors and staff, and features the Tan Tock Seng Hospital Orchid.