HOW THE ARTS CREATE CONNECTION IN VIRTUAL HEALTHCARE
Story by Meagan Gillmore
When the pandemic pushed our lives online, the arts offered a way to connect in virtual spaces. Here, members of the Temerty Medicine community share how they used storytelling, acting and visual arts to help bridge the digital divide.
Elizabeth Mansfield (MSc ’93, PhD ’11) believes digital storytelling gives patients a strong voice.
As a medical sociologist and qualitative researcher with Trillium Health Partners Institute for Better Health, Mansfield uses digital storytelling, photos and voice recordings to research the health care experiences of patients, families and caregivers.
In one project, women from diverse backgrounds share their stories about being treated for breast cancer. In another, young adults needing mental health support and their families combine photos and recorded stories to describe their experiences accessing those supports.
“The process allows people to frame their own experiences,” says Mansfield, noting that the contributed stories and photos don’t have the constraints of a questionnaire or interview. As well, the process creates a record of their experience that Mansfield says “they can take away and use as they would like.”
Mansfield is also an assistant professor with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she found art and technology enhanced connection for participants in the program.
For example, when protocols moved her research projects online, weekly Zoom meetings replaced a weekend storytelling workshop for breast cancer patients. The weekly online chats allowed the participants to get to know each other over a longer period of time than they would have had in the weekend workshop. A strong community formed over Zoom. Even though the project has now concluded, Mansfield notes that the participants still keep in touch.
FOSTERING
FAMILIARITY
Isabel Fryszberg (BSc ’82) discovered that digital platforms offer a new way to connect with clients in her private arts-based therapy practice.
The adjunct lecturer with Temerty Medicine’s occupational science and therapy department (OS&T) has more than three decades of experience as an arts-based occupational therapist and was recognized in 2020 with an OS&T alumni achievement award for her work in the field.
Fryszberg is also a painter, filmmaker and songwriter and musician and has created award-winning music videos. She brings a sense of freedom and exploration to her practice, which helps clients develop creativity and resiliency through art. “You never have to teach a child how to pick up a crayon and draw, do you?” she asks. “They just do it. And that’s the kind of feeling I like to give back to adults.”
When physical distancing protocols prevented Fryszberg from seeing clients in person, the therapist pivoted to video calls, connecting with clients to discuss strategies for health and well-being from the comfort of home.
One client had worked as a professional artist before a brain tumour resulted in cognitive impairments to her short-term memory. When visitors were prevented from visiting the long-term care home where she lived, the artist began to suffer from feelings of isolation and despair.
Fryzsberg turned to the arts for connection. During weekly video calls, the two sang together and discussed the lives and works of Georgia O’Keeffe and Emily Carr, two of the client’s favourite painters. Engaging in familiar and beloved topics “elicited enthusiastic engagement and coherent and meaningful conversation,” says Fryszberg, and brought feelings of calm and delight to the client.
Fryszberg finds that virtual meetings remove the formality that can be associated with meeting in an office environment and foster a fresh take on practitioner-client interactions.
“It’s not like a clinical session where you’re sitting in a chair,” she says. “It’s playful and not threatening. It feels a little casual, but we’re actually getting down to business.”
ART OFFERS A SAFE CONTAINER TO EXPLORE AND TO MAKE MEANING WHILE ALSO CONTAINING US
IMPROVING
VIRTUAL CARE
The pandemic also temporarily halted in-person instruction for Temerty Medicine’s Standardized Patient Program. Standardized patients are specially trained actors who play the role of patients in training and assessment scenarios in the MD Programs to help refine the interpersonal communication skills critical for effective and inclusive healthcare.
“Learners can try things out in a safe space,” says Lori Nancy Kalamanski, an actress with 20 years of experience playing the role of a standardized patient.
When the pandemic shifted Kalamanski’s work to virtual, she found herself helping MD learners acquire a new set of skills needed to communicate with patients outside of the traditional office setting.
Video calls changed the dynamic as the trainees learned to adjust to taking patient narratives, providing advice and sometimes delivering heavy news amid domestic disruptions from children, delivery drivers and more.
“There were lots of challenges that came up for learners who were treating patients virtually,” says Kalamanski.
CREATING
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
In the digital world, art can also bring strangers together and create a sense of community and collaboration. That’s the premise behind a new project from the health equity, art, research, technology (HeART) Lab.
“Art has the potential to combat isolation,” says Allison Crawford (PGME ’05), an associate professor in Temerty Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and the founding director of HeART Lab, which uses art and technology to promote well-being and health equity by co-designing projects with communities.
At the HeART Lab, Crawford and colleagues are exploring how public art installations can further mental health and well-being. In October 2022, it launched the “Digital Amphitheatre at the Garden of the Greek Gods,” a collaborative digital storytelling platform connected to a public art installation by late Canadian sculptor E.B. Cox.
Cox’s sculptures of mythical figures, including Aphrodite and Hercules, are located on the grounds of Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Visitors to the installation will find HeART Lab QR codes by some of the statues. The codes, which can be scanned by a smartphone, take visitors to an online community to share stories about and personal reflections on themes related to the installation. They can also use the QR codes to project images of the sculptures to other locations, allowing anyone to experience the artwork from anywhere.
Visitor contributions are shared on the project’s website, allowing people to read them and contribute their own thoughts.
Crawford hopes the project will help foster a sense of community based on observing and interacting with the sculptures.
“Feelings that we all deal with independently and as a collective benefit from being shared,” says Crawford. “Especially during COVID, feelings that ranged from uncertainty, grief and, even at times, gratitude and joy, could overwhelm us.
“Art can be a guide in helping us find an expression for feelings and can help us share them with others,” she continues. “Art offers a safe container to explore and to make meaning while also containing us. We’ve really seen the arts as a source of community-building and hope.