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Literature & Medicine: National Connections
[Connecticut
::: Illinois ::: Maine
::: Maryland ::: Massachusetts
::: Montana ::: Nebraska
::: New Hampshire ::: New
Jersey ::: North Carolina :::
Rhode Island ::: South
Carolina ::: Utah ::: Vermont ::: click to specific state or scroll to read all]
CONNECTICUT
Literature & Medicine Promotes a Culture of Understanding at Bridgeport
Hospital
What do a mad scientist and a monster have to do with culturally inclusive healthcare? That’s the question staff member at Bridgeport Hospital wrestled with on the last night of their Literature & Medicine program, a five-part book discussion series sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council. Led by Humanities scholar Mark Schenker of Yale University, the group was wrapping up the program with a discussion of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein that led to some unexpected connections between the book and their experiences working in a culturally diverse environment.
For an Emergency Room nurse, whose work requires her to cope with personal reactions to devastating physical injuries, the book was a reminder to look beyond physical appearance to make a personal connection with those under her care. A nurse who works to rehabilitate older adults who have suffered a health setback noted that cultural perceptions often impact her work, especially when her goals for patient self-sufficiency aren’t in line with family members who want to help an older relative at a difficult time. Many group members related themes in the book to the fine line that caregivers often walk in balancing the institution of medicine with the human needs of the patients they serve.
Bringing Literature & Medicine to Bridgeport Hospital was the brainchild of Charlotte Boehm, who saw a great fit between the program and the hospital’s goal to serve the needs of 2,000 employees and thousands of patients in a community that includes many cultural backgrounds, languages and customs. “Literature & Medicine has allowed us to explore complex cultural issues in a open and non-confrontational atmosphere,” she explains. "With Mark’s guidance, we’ve been able to use poems, short stories and full novels to help our staff think more carefully on what binds us together rather than what separates us. It will certainly change the way we interact with one another and the quality of care we provide to our patients. For more information, contact the Connecticut Humanities Council :::
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ILLINOIS
The first Literature & Medicine seminar began at Central DuPage Hospital (CDH) in February 2003, under the direction of program facilitator Amy Levin, Assoc. Professor of English and Director of Women’s Studies at Northern Illinois University and Phoebe Stein Davis of the Illinois Humanities Council staff. We have now successfully run three seminars at the CDH site and are just finishing up a fourth seminar there. Phoebe is working closely with Amy and two very good liaisons from CDH, a physician and the hospital librarian. Together, the team has decided to take a break at CDH to re-group and focus on recruiting new members to the seminars. Seminar participants are committed to helping our liaison there in bringing in new voices. They will begin again in 2006.
We are happy to announce that after a successful pilot program at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, they will begin a second Literature & Medicine seminar in the fall. We recently learned that the hospital administration has included the program as a line item in their budget (after the first seminar, the program is run on a cost-share basis). We are also in the midst of our first Chicago-area site at the Palliative Care Center & Hospice of the North Shore. Geraldine Gorman, M.A. (Literature), RN, Ph.D. (Nursing), is our facilitator for that site, and at 30 participants, it has the largest enrollment of any of our sites. In December, a local radio station, WFMT, recorded one of their discussions, on Thomas DeBaggio’s recent memoir about his descent into Alzheimer's disease, Losing My Mind. This was scheduled to air sometime this spring. :::
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"Reading excepts from The Noonday Demon [by Andrew Solomon] was very difficult — it was like work, what we see every day….But what was really so hard about it was that it made me realize I had no idea of what it is like to be depressed. I’ve worked with a lot of people who have been depressed, and read a lot, and I thought that I ‘got’ what it was like, though I’ve never suffered from depression myself. But the book made me realize that I had no idea of how much people can suffer, how excruciatingly painful it can be. That was hard [to realize], but it was a good kick in the pants! I cannot assume I know what patients are experiencing."
— Literature & Medicine Participant,
Spring Harbor Hospital 2005
The Maine Humanities Council finished its ninth year of offering the Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care® program. We worked with 15 sites in 2005, most of whom were hosting a Literature & Medicine seminar for their fourth year or more. This year, in addition to our strong ongoing partnership with Maine hospitals, we continued to offer the program to health care providers in other kinds settings.
For example, Frannie Peabody Center, an organization caring for the community infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS in Maine, hosted a second successful program under the guidance of facilitator Susan Bell, a professor of Sociology & Anthropology at Bowdoin College. Readings included an excerpt from The Cholera Years by Charles Rosenberg, Plainsong by Kent Haruf, Kyrie, poems by Ellen Voight, and Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. Susan Baxter did a great job as the new liaison for the group.
Co-liaisons Dan Hamilton and Enoch Albert gathered a diverse group of people together for the third year of the program at Togus Veterans’ Hospital. Natalie and Peter Harris, Professors of English at Colby College, co-facilitated the group. Among the readings were “Heroin/e,” an essay by Cheryl Strayed; selections from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche; and “Lucky” a poem by Tony Hoagland. The hospital has shown growing support for the program, which one participant credited for a change in how he viewed patients suffering from depression.
Thanks to a grant from Maine Health Access Foundation, we held pilot programs at Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook, southern Maine’s largest provider of inpatient services for those experiencing acute mental illness or dual disorders, and Sweetser, Maine’s largest mental health care organization, in Brunswick. Participants in each of these first-year groups relished the opportunity to come together with colleagues to share insights and questions — and to have an opportunity to spend time with one another outside of the fast pace of their regular professional lives. And they had fun! Facilitator Kathy Ashley, a Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, wove in medieval writings on mental illness (and wellness) with readings like Delivering Dr. Amelia and Lying Awake for the group at Spring Harbor. Liaison Gail Wilkerson did a great job of promoting the program, both within the hospital and to the public. Sweetser’s liaison, Sue Knapp, gathered a strong group, some of whom drove over an hour to get to the discussions. Facilitator Ann Kibbie (a Professor of English at Bowdoin College) selected Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and “The Hunger Artist,” and “Tell Me a Riddle” by Tillie Olsen as some of the group’s readings, sparking good discussions.
The other sites hosting a Literature & Medicine program had strong years as well: Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor; Franklin Memorial Hospital, Farmington; Goodall Hospital, Sanford; Maine Coast Hospital, Ellsworth; Mid Coast Hospital, Brunswick; Mt. Desert Island Hospital, Bar Harbor; Pen Bay Medical Center, Rockport; Sebasticook Valley Hospital, Pittsfield; St. Mary's Hospital, Lewiston; Southern Maine Medical Center, Biddeford; and Stephens Memorial Hospital, Norway and Maine Coast Hospital, Ellsworth (see photo below).
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The 2005 Literature & Medicine Group at Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth |
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Facilitator Marli Weiner was presented with an objet d'art created by the 2005 Lit & Med group at Maine Coast Hospital. Each part of the sculpture represents one of the books read by the group this year — including Geek Love, which Marli has reviewed in this issue. |
We held a meeting for liaisons in early 2005, which gave those attending an opportunity to ask questions of one another and to share ideas.
Finally, a special thanks to facilitator Beth Ellers for all of the care and thought she has put into facilitating for Lit & Med programs in Maine. She has worked with three different hospitals and will be much missed by the groups and by us. Our loss in North Carolina’s gain! Best of luck to you, Beth! ::: back to top
MARYLAND
In 2005, Maryland Humanities Council offered the first Literature & Medicine program in partnership with Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore. Sister Mary Jeremy Daigler, RSM, D. Min. and Ellen Lindenbaum, MSLS served as co-liaisons for the program and gathered an enthusiastic group of 25 people for discussion. Group members were able to receive CME's for participating. ::: back to top
MASSACHUSETTS
The Massachusetts Literature & Medicine program has just completed a third successful year, with funding and coordination provided by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. This was Year 3 for Faulkner Hospital in Boston and University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Year 2 for Burlington’s Lahey Clinic, and Year 1 for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where the distinguished poet and essayist Rafael Campo served as the initial liaison and was a member of the seminar. As a culminating event, the Beth Israel group hosted a reading by poet Cortney Davis (who is featured in this edition's “From the Inside Out” column), which was open to the whole hospital community. All of the continuing sites experimented with new discussion materials.
In Worcester, where the art museum is currently featuring an exhibition called “Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800,” facilitator Ruth Smith organized the first session around readings dealing with the scourge of deadly epidemics: Geraldine Brooks’ novel Year of Wonders, diary entries written by Samuel Pepys during the Great Plague of 1666 in London, the prose dedication and an excerpt from a poem by Pepys's contemporary John Dryden called “Annus Mirabilis, The Year of Wonders,” and a selection from Susan Hunter’s nonfiction study Black Death: AIDS in Africa.
At Faulkner, one session on individuals and families coping with disability centered on an Iranian film, The Color of Paradise, which participants rented and viewed independently before coming together for a discussion punctuated by the showing of key scenes. This visually gorgeous film focuses on the relationship between a young boy who is blind but gifted with high intelligence, sensitivity, and spiritual insight, and his father, who is sighted but unable to see his son as anything more than an embarrassment and a practical liability. The group’s searching conversation, which touched also on Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Nancy Mairs' essay “On Being a Cripple,” explored the ways in which culture, historical context, and social class can affect people’s reactions to the challenges of mental and physical disability.
Although Literature & Medicine activity slows over the summer, it does not stop. In mid-June, the Massachusetts liaisons met over dinner to share stories and strategize about fundraising. The facilitators will get together in late July. Kristin O’Connell is working with representatives of hospitals interested in joining the program in 2006, and liaisons are already sharing suggestions of titles to consider for next year’s syllabi.
MONTANA
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center in Missoula, MT completed
its first Literature & Medicine series in June. The program, funded by the Montana Committee for the Humanities and St. Patrick’s, was a huge success, according to the written evaluations of participants. The group was capped at 20, and attendance never dipped below 18 during the six month program. The mix of participants included hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, a dietician, security and janitorial personnel, a cook, and staff working in various reception areas. Dr. Herbert Swick, director of the Institute of Medicine and Humanities and the facilitator for the sessions, says the hospital has expressed interest in continuing the program next year. MCH also is looking into exploring the program in Dillon and/or Billings, Montana. ::: back to top
NEBRASKA
The Nebraska
Humanities Council participated in Maine’s Literature
& Medicine Institute in 2004. NHC is currently assessing how it
might incorporate Literature & Medicine into its program offerings.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
The New Hampshire Humanities Council is recharging the batteries of its Literature & Medicine initiative. In the past month, it has joined the national movement and held its own training workshop attended by 25 potential facilitators and site coordinators. Our goal for the 2005-2006 funding cycle is to conduct discussions at 10 hospitals statewide. The Council also is working with a married couple retired from the health care field who will help market and evaluate the project, using their contacts and experience in the medical world to great benefit. The Council has given its application forms, program description, and guidelines a facelift to make the program as attractive and accessible as possible. In the next few months, it will be actively fundraising to cover the direct costs of the program over the next year.
Over the summer, seminars took place at Littleton Hosptial, the NH State Hospital in Concord, and Kendal Retirement Community in Hanover. Several sites have expressed keen interest in continuing the seminars or participating for the first time this fall, including Concord Hospital, Littleton, NH State Hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, Frisbee Memorial in Rochester, and Pleasant View Retirement in Concord.::: back to top
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey has just successfully completed its first year of the Literature & Medicine program! Four hospitals participated in the program: The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (New Brunswick); Mountainside Hospital (Montclair); Overlook Hospital (Summit); and Atlantic City Medical Center (Atlantic City). The program was received enthusiastically at all four sites, with participants engaging in thoughtful, lively discussions connecting literature, film and poetry with their work. The program brought together social workers, nurses, concierges, and physicians to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as care givers. Participants explored their relationships with patients and with each other.
On June 21st at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, the New Jersey Lit & Med liaisons and facilitators will met to discuss their experiences in the 2005 program and look forward to 2006. We are delighted to announce that Cooper University Hospital in Camden will be joining the Lit & Med program in 2006. ::: back to top
NORTH CAROLINA
After a successful first year of offering the program at Wesley Long Community Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2004, the North Carolina Humanities Council took 2005 to build more support and funding for the program. They hope to offer the program again in 2006. An article about the 2004 program at Wesley Long Community Hospital is featured in this edition of Synapse — don't miss it! (click here for the article) :::
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RHODE ISLAND
The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities is happy to report that The Literature & Medicine program has been particularly successful at two of our sites - Hasbro/Rhode Island Hospital and at Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. New facilitator Mara Berkley has done a great job at both of these institutions. Mara has been a practicing psychotherapist for the past 17 years and also teaches part time at Rhode Island College and is currently writing a novel based on her work experiences. She has been a natural for this program.
A highlight at Hasbro was a visit from Michael Stein, author of This Room is Yours, a book included in the readings this year. Everyone enjoyed the book and having an opportunity to ask him questions, as many could relate either personally or professionally to dealing with an aging parent with Alzheimers.
A highlight at the NHPRI was a Medical Reader's Theater adaption of William Carlos Williams’ short story, “Girl with a Pimply Face.” Folks loved participating in the reading of the story, and the discussion following was lively. They also read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper, after which Mara had the group draw their impressions of depression.
In addition to these sites, veteran facilitator Karen McLennan worked with the first Literature & Medicine program at the Rhode Island VA Hospital. Unfortunately, scheduling difficulties at the hospital made attendance problematic. ::: back to top
SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina Humanities Council Literature & Medicine Program Coordinator Paula Millen reports that the program had a successful first year in South Carolina. Two sites hosted the Literature & Medicine program this year. The program at Hall Institute, Columbia Area Mental Health Center in Columbia was facilitated by Robert Oakman, PhD, with Dr. Randolph Spencer acting as the liaison for the site. Poet Laureate of South Carolina, Marjory Wentworth facilitated the program for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She worked with Dr. Bert Keller, the site’s liaison.
Readings this year included: an excerpt from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers; “Betting Your Life,’ an essay by Alice Stewart Trillin; “A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver; an excerpt titled “Breast Cancer vs. Prosthesis” from The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (book); A Separate Peace by John Knowles; “Home Burial” by Robert Frost; excerpt from Black Boy by Richard Wright; “Little Father” by Li-Young Lee ; and “Bye-Child” by Seamus Heaney, among others.
Participants had this to say when reflecting on their experience this year:
I went to a [Literature & Medicine] meeting at Medical University of South Carolina recently, not knowing what to really expect. Something happened; I was moved by the program which you have made possible. Since this meeting, I have been to two poetry readings at conferences, I did not know existed. I have written some short writings after guided imagery which was wonderful. My daughter and I went to Charleston Ballet Theater. I think I hit a nerve.
Mental health, and all of medicine, is oriented to the “medicalization of life” to quote a philosopher of bioethics. This may be a fashion but in the exercise there may be forgetting of the more complicated prism of being. So to reduce the sense of reductionism, the literature reminds that the realization of life has a certain mystery, or ambiguity, or variation contingent on perspective, moment, “who says”.
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PHOTOS: Literature & Medicine participants at the Hall Institute, Columbia Area Mental Health Center |
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UTAH
Utah Humanities Council offered the Literature & Medicine program as a
joint activity of the LDS Hospital Division of Medical Ethics and the
University of Utah Medical School in 2005. ::: back to top
VERMONT
When the Vermont Humanities Council agreed to take on Literature & Medicine in January 2003, we were hopeful of its success in Vermont, but we had no idea just how successful it would be. Hospitals readily signed up for the first round and, after the program got underway, others contacted us to get on the waiting list for 2004. The same happened for 2005. By January of this year, we had 13 of Vermont’s 15 hospitals on board. We now reach about 250 participants in all sectors of the healthcare field. Every hospital that has begun the program has continued with it — a testament to the investment they have made in the program’s primary goals of improved communication among colleagues and improved patient care.
One of the new sites this year was tiny Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend, Vermont, with just 19 licensed beds. That small hospital has the full complement of 25 people signed up. After the first discussion, Deb Luskin, the facilitator, remarked,
“It was amazing. In eighteen years I’ve never had a group so eager to talk. They truly needed me only to direct the flow of traffic. It was very, very exciting. Clearly, there are readers out there who are eager to meet each other and process reading.”
Stacy Wein, the liaison for Copley Hospital, now in its third year of Lit & Med, says the program is as much about processing roles as it is about the reading. During a session earlier this year, “a lot of discussion was about the need for kindness, positive attention, the need for compassion from doctors and other clinical people,” says Stacy. She added,
“Sometimes, in order to heal, a person just needs to be heard [and feel] a sense of self-worth. People in the medical field are in a position to do this on a large scale — from housekeepers on up we all have an opportunity to make some one else’s life better. This book discussion group does just that for those that attend and I have seen it go beyond just the group and the time we spend together. The ripple effect is on the move. Thank you for sharing this with us.”
In addition to Grace Cottage, the two other new sites this year were Springfield Hospital and the VA Medical and Regional Office Center in White River Junction. Both have a dedicated group of participants and are actively planning for next year’s program.::: back to top
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Literature & Medicine has received major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.