Tonic, the arts and environments programme for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, uses the arts to improve hospital environments and to inspire health and well-being in patients, staff and visitors, writes Josie Aston.
From 1998 to 2000 Dr Phil Leather and Diane Beale from the Institute of Work, Health and Organisations at Nottingham University carried out a systematic research programme, in partnership with Tonic, to investigate the role of the physical design of the hospital in patient and staff wellbeing.
The redevelopment programme underway at the United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH) at the time had made a deliberate attempt to move away from the sterile, clinical and institutional nature of many traditional hospital settings, to more psychologically supportive designs. Art, craft-work and interior design features such as a greater use of colour and natural light were incorporated into the buildings. This was an ideal opportunity to carry out an empirical exploration of the relationship between design and well-being by comparing the old and new environments which were delivering the same services. Three different locations were studied: a cardiac out-patients waiting area, a coronary angiography day-case unit, and a cardiology and cardiothoracic ward.
Benefits for hospital patients which resulted from the provision of a more pleasant and reassuring environment in the new environments were found to include:
? Reduced levels of self-reported stress
? Increased levels of positive environmental stimulation
? Increased mental capacity to process novel information
? Shorter postoperative stay
? Reduced post-operative drug consumption
? Possible physiological change
In short, the physical design of the hospital environment was shown to have an obvious and substantial effect on health ? the new buildings themselves were demonstrated to be therapeutic for patients treated in them. Recently, a patient wrote to us, saying, ?The reception area in the new LGI [Leeds General Infirmary] is a very pleasant entrance, especially when you are feeling very low and have worries of the forthcoming treatment. The music is pleasant and soothing, the decor first class. It is good that in a place such as this we start off in a good mood and atmosphere and go for treatment with a smile on our lips.? Incidentally, the redevelopment programme showed no similar positive effects for staff well-being, though this was almost certainly due to the effects of changes in the organisation of work as a result of the redevelopment, including: new work patterns and the creation of new work teams.
We are now researching the positive impact which participatory arts projects can have for patients in acute hospital settings. To do this, we have designed a number of projects including:
? A writer in residence working with elderly, maternity and heart surgery patients to inspire original creative work based on the interaction between patient and writer.
? The Counterpane Tales puppetry project for child patients with cystic fibrosis who spend up to three weeks at a time in isolation.
? The Hidden Treasures project which will enable teenagers who are terminally ill with cancer to produce video diaries documenting and celebrating their lives.
? An ex-cancer patient consultation which will use a professional writer and theatre company to translate patients? experiences into a performance for the designers of a new cancer hospital.
Josie Aston is Arts Fundraising Officer at Tonic. t: 0113 392 3941; e: josie.aston@leedsth.nhs.uk
Copies of the report ?A comparative study of the impact of environmental design upon hospital patients and staff? are available from Tonic.