BLOG 24…August 2013

I’m always on the lookout for art and artists popping up in unusual places and my ears perked up recently when I heard about Ronna Bloom, poet –in- residence at a large downtown Toronto hospital.  Seems a nice synchronicity to be celebrating two years of blogging by reminiscing about the sessions we had with writers, artists and dancers at TGH in the 80’s and 90’s, glad that the notion of arts having a place in treatment settings is alive and well.

Poetry is one of the offerings of the Employee Emotional Wellness Program that “support the wellness of your mind, body and spirit.” at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. It’s a very sensible as well as sensitive approach to running a large institution entrusted with caring for people and where burnout is hard to avoid.


As well as the conventional writer-in-residence format of receiving individual work for coaching and offering writing workshops for groups (some titles include Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Note Form and Have You Seen the Patient?)  Ronna tailors her program to the setting. She has a monthly poetry booth in the basement staff lunchroom.where individuals sit with her, tell her what’s on their mind and she crafts a quick poem for them…”often either they start to cry or I do,” she says. In a high stress atmosphere like a hospital “it’s kind of therapeutic to stop, write and reflect, makes them better at their jobs when they go back” she adds.  Lindsay Drysdale, program coordinator echoes this feeling, “Personal well-being can play a major role in how you’re working.” 

One Friday morning last spring, several hundred people filled the lecture hall on the 18th floor for Psychiatry Grand Rounds - not for the usual lecture on a new psychotropic or insight into depression, but POETRY.  Much to my surprise, near the end of the session, after describing her work, Ronna asked if anyone in the audience wanted to read their poem aloud for her comments. A bunch of people volunteered, doctors, nurses, technical staff, all seemed willing and comfortable sharing their creative work. She had set the stage for comfort with the theme of the session Who will care for me?

She also showed that poets and poems can be funny or sad, that poetry is enlivened by the broad range of experiences and feelings which are often accentuated in hospital settings for patients, their friends and family as well as for staff members.


So, a shout out to Mount Sinai’s Healthy Workplace Initiative, putting their money (along with some from the Ontario Arts Council) where their mouth is with poetry.

No comments:

Post a Comment