Child Life Discover Newsletter 2019 Issue #2

2019 Issue 2

The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department

We’ve Grown By Four Paws!

The Paws and Play facility dog program within the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department recently welcomed our newest addition, Moby! With the generous support of the Gertrude and Louis Feil Charitable Trust, Paws & Play is expanding its therapeutic offering with the introduction of “Paws & Play: Care for Clinical Teams”. Moby will be working with his handler, Jaclyn Damiano, who is a licensed and board certified Art Therapist. Together they will provide well-being and resilience opportunities for staff, faculty and trainees in the adult areas. Our mission will be dedicated to reducing burnout, stress, and depression in the workplace to positively impact patient care. Moby and Jackie will be working in the adult ICU, Adult ED, Ruttenberg Treatment Center and Mount Sinai Queens clinical teams.

Moby is a golden-doodle, a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle, and came to Mount Sinai from Canine Assistants, in Alpharetta, GA. Moby is 15 months old and has been through a bond-based training program in preparation to serve as a key member of Mount Sinai Hospital’s treatment team. He was named after the great American novel, Moby Dick, and his littermates are all named after men in literature.

When he is not supporting our staff, faculty and trainees, Moby enjoys playing outside, taking naps on the train and meeting new people!

Moby!

Reinvigorated Child Life Services in the IBD Center In January 2019, Child Life Specialist Gretchen Greenlee joined the team in The Susan & Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center providing child life services to patients in the therapeutic infusion center. Gretchen provides procedural support during IV starts, advocates for the needs of her patients and empowers children to ask questions and learn more about their IBD. Another focus has been striving to make the center a more child-friendly environment, as the space sees both adult and pediatric patients. The Child Life Corner provides a medical art activity and the treatment room TVs now have Kid Zone TV network so patients can tune into Bingo and afternoon shows! Gretchen has also been surveying patients to learn more about their experiences and own vision for the space. A few fun upcoming plans include monthly themes, projects and other activities to create community and resiliency within the center.

The child life corner in the IBD center

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Child Life in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit In March, the newly renovated PCICU opened, providing world-class care to cardiac patients and their families. Our two wonderful Child Life Specialists Abby Patch and Marianne Porzelt, provide developmental and emotional support to PICU/PCICU patients and their entire families to help them cope with the stress and challenges of being admitted to the hospital, through therapeutic play and ageappropriate diagnostic and procedural preparation. Abby and Marianne host a weekly parent coffee hour to provide parents respite and socialization with others on the unit. The child life team continues to collaborate with the medical and psychosocial team to develop and implement supportive programming focused on the cardiac population and family needs and we look forward to continued partnership.

Child Life Specialists Abby Patch and Marianne Porzelt with facility dog Professor

Joy in Childhood Grants Funds for the NICU Lindsay Davis and Claire Pentengill, Child Life Specialists in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, were awarded a $20,000 grant through the Dunkin Donuts Joy in Childhood Foundation to be put towards the creation of a NICU care package. Each package contains materials for each member of the family, including board books for patients while they are in the hospital, sibling support backpacks with therapeutic books and activities, a Graham’s Foundation Welcome Kit for parent support and a NICU specific journal for documenting the family’s journey. Additionally, Mount Sinai provided an additional $5,000 in funding to include a NICU specific story book for each patient to help their families commemorate the experience after discharge. Lindsay and Claire have been using these items to help provide emotional and developmental support during NICU stays and are truly appreciative of the additional layer of care it allows them to give patients and families. “The sibling kit was the perfect way to introduce my daughter to her new baby brother. She loved the adorable bag and coloring book. Seeing the pictures of the feeding tubes, breathing equipment and everything else she would see when she first met her brother, really helped prepare her for the experience. She still takes the coloring book with her when we go places. I really appreciate all that you and the rest of the team has done to make my daughter feel comfortable and happy when she visits with her brother,” explained Tracy Potkay, mother of a NICU baby. We are excited for the level of care and compassion this initiative brings to patients and their families.

NICU sibling showing off her NICU care package

One on One with Pianist Perkins In October 2018, our department received a generous donation from the Sing for Hope foundation which added a piano to our lobby in order to provide live music for those entering our hospital. We are fortunate enough to have wonderful volunteers who donate their time to share their musical talents with our community. We sat down with Perkins, one of our volunteers, to hear more about their story.

Where are you from? I’m from Tully, NY, a small town just south of Syracuse. It is known in the region for having many kettle lakes, a very good Council for the Arts, and a preponderance of cows.

What is your role here at Mount Sinai? How did you hear about the Kravis Children’s Hospital’s Visiting Musical Artist Program? I’m a first year PhD Student in Neuroscience. I heard about the program through an email that circulated on a list for musicians, and I thought it seemed like a wonderful initiative.

When did you start playing piano? I switched to playing the piano in sixth grade after deciding that I really disliked playing the clarinet. After that, I took lessons until I graduated. Though I stuck with studying music, for much of high school I continued on page 3

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Special Events in the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department did not slow down following the holiday season. The beginning of a new year brought many new special events and guests. In March, we celebrated Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy month, highlighting our services at an educational table in the hospital’s atrium. We hosted our annual ice cream social for patients, families, and staff, and we introduced a new event: Make a Scene. Pediatric units were challenged to create a Disney scene using art and medical supplies and showed off their fantastic creations at our ice cream social. Other exciting guests included: Broadway Hearts, UFC fighters, fashion designer Lori Goldstein, Chef Ralph Scamardella, Julliard musicians and Moment of Magic.

Staff Additions and Accomplishments Please join us in welcoming wonderful new staff members!

Christina Auriemma is our Creative Arts Therapy Coordinator in our Hematology/Oncology inpatient unit, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and our Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) providing support to both patients and families. In her free time, Christina is a jewelry designer who enjoys taking yoga classes and spending time with her family at the NJ shore.

Katherine Parker is a licensed and board-certified art therapist.

She recently joined our team as a new Creative Arts Therapy Coordinator working on inpatient units. In her free time, Katherine enjoys reading, cooking and traveling.

Left to right: Christina Auriemma, Katherine Parker, Adreena Nersesian

Adreena Nersesian is our new Music Therapist in the Emergency Department. She provides procedural support and therapeutic sessions for patients in the ED. In her spare time, Adreena enjoys spending time with friends, hiking and playing music.

Accomplishments: Gabriela Asch-Ortiz, Music Therapist, and Nicole Wood, Child Life Specialist presented at the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association (MAR-AMTA) Conference in March. Their case study was entitled “’Be Yourself’: A Case Study Exploring Music Therapy, Child Life, and Technology”.

Jaclyn Damiano, Art Therapist, began her new role as facility dog handler to new pup Moby. The pair work together to provide staff support in the adult ICUs. Abby Patch, Child Life Specialist, presented alongside colleagues at Grand Rounds on Pediatric Palliative Care – “Life Long Care”.

Archimedes Bibiano is celebrating 15 years with the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. Archimedes provides meditation services to our pediatric patients and their families continued on page 4

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One on One with Pianist Perkins

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nevertheless found it kind of tiresome to play and practice. However, that changed when I learned two things: First, that I could improvise, and second, that I loved composing.

From then on, I’ll admit, playing from sheet music has largely gone by the wayside. However, by learning to go with the flow of a song, lean into my mistakes, and apply music theory in order to make new things that sound good, I’ve found a kind of music-making that I really enjoy.

Can you tell us about one or two of your most favorite pieces to play or listen to? What draws you to them? One piece of music that will always hold a special place in my heart is the song “Ampersand” by Amanda Palmer. It was one of the first piano songs I learned because I wanted to, not for a lesson, and I played it at an informal dinner recital when I was seventeen. It was the first time that I realized people were actually enjoying my playing, not just tolerating it. It’s also just a

Perkins and the Sing for Hope Piano

really excellent song. Nowadays, my favorite song to play is probably whatever I’ve most recently composed, because it’s always exciting and rough around the edges and that’s what’s the most fun.

How does music impact your life? Why is it important to you? I thought about this question for a while, and I think I finally have an answer. I could talk first about art and expression, and how songwriting is two mediums in one – composition and poetry entangled. But I also thought about the technical thrill of making it, of how executing a series of tricky motor actions comes with huge gratification. I could even talk about how improvised music makes me remember that my mistakes are just part of the melody, and what’s most important is that you just keep playing.

However, I think the real answer is that music keeps me company. When I am lonely, there is solidarity to be found in playing an album and hearing a familiar voice articulate the feelings that I can’t. When I'm with people, there’s incredible camaraderie in knowing that music has brought us even closer together than we would be otherwise. When I am alone, you can often hear me singing or whistling (This habit has admittedly gotten me in trouble). Music keeps us company and music makes us brave. None of us lives in a silent world; somewhere, at every moment, someone is singing, and I take great comfort in that.

Staff Additions and Accomplishments

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Gabriela Asch-Ortiz, Music Therapist, served on a panel for the ad hoc cultural humility, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion committee. She also received a recognition award for her work on this committee.

Jennifer Reeves and Lindsay Davis, Child Life Specialists, both received STAR awards for their excellent work meeting the unique needs of the patients they serve in the general pediatrics clinic and the NICU. Diane Rode, Director, provided a full child life program review to both Benioff Children’s in Oakland and San Francisco in January. She also facilitated a full day pre-conference intensive on Clinical Supervision and Reflective Practice at the annual Association of Child Life Professionals conference in Chicago in April.

Nicole Wood, Child Life Specialist, was accepted to present at the American Art Therapy Association Conference next fall. The presentation will focus on Palliative Care co-treatment with Art Therapy and is entitled “Creating Farewell Narratives: Videography in Life Review and Creative Arts Therapy.”

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