Art carts provide opportunities for fun, purpose and hope for USA Health employees
Art carts at University Hospital and Children’s & Women’s Hospital give employees on all shifts the opportunity to paint during their breaks.
The effects of May’s Mental Health Awareness Days hosted by the Spiritual Care Department and the Employee Assistance Program have continued through an ongoing art therapy project.
“After employees enjoyed rock painting at our Mental Health Awareness Day in May, we began the journey of the ‘art cart,’” said Kim Crawford Meeks, USA Health spiritual care manager. “We have an art cart traveling unit to unit at University Hospital and another at Children’s & Women’s Hospital. The cart has rocks, paint, brushes, and the opportunity for imagination and personal expression.”
Carts stay at units for one to two weeks at a time to give employees on all shifts time to paint during their breaks.
“We hope to add more art carts with new projects periodically, and we plan to create a rock garden with our beautiful creations,” she said.
So far, USA Health employees have contributed everything from a scene of a beautiful sunset, a puppy waiting to play, a family of turtles going for a swim in the pond, strawberry ice cream, a bumblebee and more.
“Art may be used to express creativity and for coping. Art allows for focus and centering the mind on the present moment,” Crawford Meeks said. “This focus aids in reducing stress, anxiety and worry, and helps in processing grief. An art project is a type of ‘timeout’ to step outside of a circumstance into another zone and is beneficial, if even for a brief time.”
Art is also vital to self-care in many ways, as it can offer an outlet for fun, provide meaning and purpose, and healing and hope.
“If you are walking through the journey of grief, you may try going through the motions of doing an art project even if you don’t feel like doing it,” she said. “As you go through the motions of the project, your emotions will hopefully catch up with those motions, and you might find even a bit of joy, which over time will grow and aid in healing and restoration of hope.”
