2020 Issue 3
The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department
Meeting the Needs of Patients and Families in the time of COVID Faced with the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to patient care, our Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy staff responded with increased determination, innovation, and a strengthened commitment to meeting the needs of our patients. Through the use of technology, we remained engaged with our patients throughout the crisis and have bridged these obstacles, making sure our patients and families remain as connected as possible to each other, our services, and even some very special visitors. Our enhanced child life robots and video conferencing tablets allowed all patients access to therapeutic play and support, even in the most restricting medical contexts. Child life specialists and creative arts therapists facilitated diagnostic teaching, provided procedural support, performed music and art interventions, and provided animal assisted therapy sessions to our patients on isolation precautions - all through the use of our telepresence technology. KidZone TV, our interactive broadcast channel that serves as a medium to connect our community of patients and staff, created teaching resources and increased its number of live shows. This created an all day long gathering place accessible by all patients in their rooms. In these times, our staff remains committed to bringing support and opportunities for play, joy and creativity to those in our care.
Music Therapy During Covid The music therapy team worked flexibly and creatively to find ways to offer services to patients and families amidst COVID-19. Music therapy was offered remotely, via iPad or robot, to provide COVID-19 patients with a receptive music experience. Some patients indicated a need for music for relaxation, and through this technology, music therapists were able to offer live music that was customized to the needs of the patient in the moment. Additionally, there appeared to be an increased need for environmental music therapy (EMT) for staff amidst such a stressful and uncertain time. EMT, offered across units, provided staff with live music experiences intended to reduce stress and offer respite within the workday. Mountsinai.org/childlife
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The Zone Adds Wellness Hour to Support Clinical Staff
The child life zone has long been a space where pediatric patients and families find comfort, support and serenity. With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the child life and creative arts therapy team saw a unique opportunity to use this space to support the heavily taxed pediatric healthcare staff and implemented “staff wellness hours” in the child life zone every weekday afternoon. In addition to hot beverages, snacks and self-care art kits, these wellness hours feature a variety of restorative offerings from child life staff, including mindful meditation sessions, chair yoga and visits with the department’s facility dogs. Since its inception, physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare providers have visited the child life zone for much needed respite from their clinical environments. Summarizing the sentiment echoed by many, one clinician described her zone experience as “a nice escape from all the seriousness. It’s nice to relax and take your mind off of everything. It’s been a really good and reenergizing space. Grab some coffee, take some time to reset, and then go back.”
The Voice of Teens in the Time of the Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted our Mount Sinai community. In hopes of depicting the impact and the experience of our pediatric patients and teens in the community, the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department has dedicated the latest issue of SURGE to this healthcare crisis. SURGE, a teen literary magazine featuring art and creative writings of teen patients in Kravis Children’s Hospital and in the community, has always been a meaningful platform to highlight the thoughts and perspectives of our adolescent population. In the context of COVID-19, this publication has brought together members of the Youth Advisory Council, pediatric patients and clinical staff to discover shared experiences and insights related to this moment in time. During a series of facilitated zoom sessions, feelings of isolation, productiveness and “mixed” emotions are explored through creative writing and various art modalities. The artwork and writing pieces will be published in our Summer/Fall 2020 edition, sneak peak of some artwork to be included below.
Isolated But Not Alone, by M.Q
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Acrylic Painting, by Eshanie Henry
The Connection of Feelings Between Us, by Jasmeen Kaur
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David Blaine Brings Magic to our Patients and Families David Blaine has been dazzling patients, families, and staff virtually! A patient’s father with an extended admission developed and perfected his own trick under David Blaine’s tutelage, astonishing a nurse. David Blaine was able to safely drive robot remotely to patients’ room in hem/onc clinic to perform for them and brighten their day. Nurses and other medical staff gathered around the iPad during their stressful shifts, to wonder “How did he do that?!” A combination of gasps and laughter could be heard down the hallway. The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department is so excited about this ongoing partnership.
In Loving Memory of our Mount Sinai Hospital Coworkers
Happy Birthday, Moby!
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Staff Accomplishments
Patient Art Highlight
David Vargas, a 17-year-old from the Bronx, has a passion for drawing. During a week-long hospitalization at Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital to treat the illness now referred to as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), David drew sketches of the many clinicians who cared for him. "My experience in the hospital was really foreign and that's what really made staying there so scary for me. The drawings made things feel less foreign and less scary," David says. David, who has never had any previous medical issues nor has he ever been hospitalized, said that he knows it may sounds weird, but he feels very lucky to have "only" spent a week in the hospital. "Since this happened” David says, “I have been thinking about a lot of things that I never thought about. There are so many things we take for granted, like breathing.” David is now healthy at home, where he is quarantining for 14 days and we thank him for these beautiful and uplifting drawings!
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Director Diane Rode and Assistant Director Morgan Stojanowski participated in an ACLP panel discussing leadership during COVID-19. Facility dog Moby remained an essential member of the Child Life and Creative Art Therapy Department during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with Jackie, his creative arts therapist handler, Moby supported patients, families and staff across the Mount Sinai Health System. Moby and Jackie expanded their clinical reach to include locations across the system, including Mount Sinai campuses in Brooklyn and Queens, Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside. In partnership with the Office of Wellbeing and Resilience, they continued to offer daily staff support sessions throughout the hospital.
On June 24, 2020, Jaclyn Craig, art therapist, completed her Harvard Business School leadership class led by Dr. Lisa Satlin.
Moby and Jackie presented at the bi-weekly town hall with Dr. David Reich, President, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens, and other hospital system leadership.
ED Child Life Specialist Darcy Dirksen passed her certification exam and is now a certified child life specialist.
Archimedes Bibiano presented at Asia Society's 2020 Global Talent, Diversity & Inclusion Virtual Symposium, Building Unity and Providing Leadership in a New Normal, June 24-25, 2020.
The Karelsie Foundation renewed their annual support for our full-time clinical music therapy position. We are grateful for their continued support and investment in music therapy research, and our mission to maintain creative arts therapies as an essential modality in our treatment milieu.
Decoda Music collaborated with our department in support of our pediatric frontline staff during the pandemic. Described by Time Out NY as "a new collective of some of the brightest young classical musicians in the world," they have provided weekly streaming concerts to our pediatric nurses and house staff. We look forward to continually facilitating these special experiences for our colleagues at Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital. Read more: decodamusic.org.
Welcome to New Staff Member Jasmine Edwards joined the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department in March 2020 as a creative arts therapy coordinator. Jasmine has a bachelor’s degree in music therapy from Florida State University, and her master’s degree in music therapy from New York University. Jasmine has a vested interest in bringing discussions of power, privilege, and oppression in to music therapy education. Jasmine also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Howard University music therapy department.
Director Diane Rode presented “Clinical Supervision: A Reflective Practice Experience” at the May 2020 Child Life Virtual Conference. For a national audience of Child Life Specialists and Directors, Diane offered a live clinical supervision session and engaged the virtual audience in discussion, art making, and dialogue about the central role of clinical supervision in the Child Life profession.
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