Local artists use their craft to inspire cancer patients at Lime Spring Outpatient Center

When Linda Billet quit her job as a mail carrier 15 years ago to pursue her dream of being a glass artisan, her mother was her biggest cheerleader.

“She loved everything I made, and she understood how I loved to use my art to make people happy,” said Billet, a Hummelstown resident whose glass mosaics will grace the walls of Penn State Health Lime Spring Outpatient Center ― Hematology/Oncology in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County.

In just four months from diagnosis to passing, Billet lost her mother to pancreatic cancer, which means she knows the feel of the spaces where her art will hang – where hope and fear dance an unwieldy duet and the stomach drops when test results return bad news.

“My pieces are about hope and ongoing life,” said Billet as she points out the “grandmother” tree in the middle of one of her mosaics and the “nurse log” – a fallen tree near it. “Did you know that a ‘nurse log’ is a real thing? It’s called that because it supports new life by giving habitat to the seedlings.”

The effort to involve local artists in decorating the wall spaces at Lime Spring Outpatient Center is intentional. Center Stage Arts in Health offers a variety of art and music programs throughout Penn State Health, based on the belief that thoughtfully chosen artistic engagement is an integral part of health and well-being, said Keeley Engle, coordinator of Center Stage – Penn State Cancer Institute Arts in Health.

Noel H. Ballentine, MD, serves as a general internist and geriatrician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He spends his free time creating pen and ink art. Examples of his work will be on display at the Community Art Gallery outside Room T2500 at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Center Stage Arts in Health and the Hershey Area Art Association curated this exhibit. Dr. Ballentine created this work simply as abstract artistic inventions. His visual expression represents musical jazz.  Each piece generally begins as a random abstract flow of lines or curves in black ink – the musical analogy would be the background rhythm of drums and bass. The inventions enthrall and compel the viewer to enter into the lines, colors, and textures of the piece. Viewers may see something in the piece to relate to, such as a flower, a figure, a butterfly, a pool of water or the sky.  Images may evoke emotion – peace, tranquility, anger, or despair. It may be pleasing or uncomfortable, but the intent is to elicit intriguing, fascinating, and satisfying reactions.

A practitioner for 38 years, Dr. Ballentine is engaged in geriatric care and the teaching of geriatrics to resident physicians and medical students. In 2020, his artwork was featured on the front cover of the Department of Humanities art and literary journal, Wild Onions.

Patients find new ‘friends’ in virtual connections

There’s nothing like a friendly chat to brighten someone’s day — and ease anxiety or stress.

That’s the thought behind Phone-A-Friend, a program run by Center Stage Arts in Health that connects Hershey Medical Center patients with College of Medicine students for virtual visits.

“It was great to have this personal interaction,” said patient Maurice Brown, of Harrisburg, after chatting with Rahul Gupta, a fourth-year medical student, from his room. “Rahul was really easy to talk with and personable.”

The idea for Phone-A-Friend originated with College of Medicine students who saw a need and wanted to fill it. Center Stage Arts in Health and floor nurses worked with the students on the logistics.

“What do people do in times of stress? Gather together,” said Clair de Boer, founder of Center Stage, which provides arts programming to nourish well-being throughout Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine community. “We really value human, in-person connection, but that’s very limited now, so we have to adapt and do things virtually.”

Art and music therapy project unites young patients

With face-to-face interactions limited, patients and staff at Penn State Children’s Hospital used their hands to come together without even touching.

“We were looking for different ways to reach a broad range of patients, as our group sessions aren’t an option, and it’s important to continue to find ways to feel we’re together,” said Devon Springer, a board-certified music therapist.

Using Child Life’s GetWell closed-circuit television network, Springer and Alexis Lombardo, a registered and board-certified art therapist, created “Let’s Get Together,” a program that was livestreamed to patients’ rooms.

Strumming her guitar to the tune of “I’ll Be There for You,” from the TV show “Friends,” Springer invited children to use their in-room telephones to call in their ideas for improvised lyrics. The new opening lines became, “Well, no one knew today was gonna be this way. Here in the hospital, with some loved ones far away!”

The refrain went like this:

I’ll be there for you, through a picture I draw

I’ll be there for you, keeping memories to share

I’ll be there for you, and I know you’re there for me too

Child Life Specialist Erin Shaffer read a children’s book about being connected when physically separated, titled “The Invisible String” during the program.

Meanwhile, using art supplies dropped off to their rooms, the children traced their hands and decorated them in an array of colors and messages. Since the papers couldn’t be collected due to COVID-related precautions, Lombardo took digital images of each hand and compiled them into a heart-shaped picture. Staff contributed, too, for a total of 45 hands joined together.

“It’s a visual representation of us all separate but all in this together at the Children’s Hospital,” Lombardo said.

The team plans to present a new program once a week or so to keep the connection going. Child Life is also using the GetWell network for story time and games like BINGO and Pictionary to reach more patients who are isolated in their rooms.

 

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