Finding hope in a healing environment

They add color to the old building. They are nice to look at.

But the potted flowers surrounding the UP-PGH Cancer Institute and the bright-colored paintings on the walls of the wards are more than just pretty decorations. Together with doctors, staff, and hospital attendants, they form part of a healing process that go beyond what science can heal.

In recent years, the institute’s healthcare facilities have been undergoing an extensive makeover to create more patient-friendly environments. From enhancing facility design with features like soothing artwork, to offering complementary therapy programs that promote patient and caregiver wellness, awareness of the need to create environments that encourage healing has dramatically increased.

"We try to help cancer patients get better by treating not only their bodies but their whole being as well," explains Dr. Cecilia Ladines-Llave, chair of the UP-PGH Cancer Institute. "We provide them, their families, and their caregivers a natural sanctuary where they may be healed not only physically but also spiritually."

Patients need something to uplift their spirits, according to Dr. Llave, an environment that will open their eyes to something that will encourage them to hope for a lease in life. A couple of years ago, the institute looked no different from any other hospital with its plain white rooms. "How will you heal in that dark and gloomy setting?" Dr. Llave quips.

So she had the administrative office complex repainted and the furniture upholstered with pastel colors. Mini-blinds were attached to the windows and the office tables were covered with glass tops with pieces of left-over wallpaper as accents. Hip new names were also assigned each room, corresponding to the unique color and design combination they carry.

The institute also launched the "adopt a project/adopt a room" program in which a donor renovates a room, provides it with instruments, medical supplies, beddings, gowns, pillows, and many other things that are important in the maintenance of quality service, including the salaries of the support staff, in some cases. It is not meant to be a one-shot deal, however, but a continuous sustenance of support. The institute’s most generous donors, in fact, are long-time partners from business and industry.

The new breast care center, for instance, was established as part of Avon’s "Kiss Goodbye to Breast Cancer" campaign in coordination with the Philippine Cancer Society.

As part of the makeover, the institute’s atrium was transformed into a healing garden where patients, relatives and the hospital staff can take a stroll or relax. Everything, of course, was built with volunteer labor and donations.

"Dinaan sa pakapalan ng mukha," the bubbly doctor says jokingly. "I mustered some guts and approached my civic-minded neighbors Tony and Tita Perez to donate spare plants from their own garden."

The Perezes, however, did more. They organized the Osewa Garden Club to gather volunteers interested in building the garden.

"Our idea was to create an environment that is as peaceful, hopeful, and comfortable as possible," says Dr. Llave. She believes that as the plants mature, the garden will become a source of peace for the patients and their family members, and for the people who work at the Center.

Cultivated gardens have been entwined with human health since the dawn of time, when Mesopotamian gardens were life-giving oases. The earliest gardens were filled with herbs for healing, as well as fruits and vegetables for sustenance.

A 10-year study by Professor Roger Ulrich of the Texas Agriculture and Mechanics University in the US has also shown that patients recuperating from illness have much faster recovery times if they are able to interact with a garden, even if this only means having a garden view from their hospital bed. Patients with such a view had shorter stays, took fewer painkillers, and complained less to nurses.

In addition to physically improving their facilities, the institute is also offering complementary therapy programs to manage symptoms and enhance the patient’s overall wellness. Flower arrangement and horticulture therapy classes are held regularly for cancer patients, their relatives, caregivers, and the medical staff. The institute also provides a venue for healing workshops in the visual and performing arts, music therapy, aromatherapy, storytelling, stress management techniques, dance, and even yoga (although no extreme forms are done).

"Cancer doesn’t just happen to one person. It affects family and friends, especially those who have taken primary responsibility for looking after an individual with cancer," she points out.

Emotional overload also occurs among caregivers especially when they get overwhelmed by their exposure to, and experience of human trauma. This can lead to disillusionment and exhaustion, or "burnout," as medical practitioners often refer to the process. All people have limits as to how much stress they can effectively deal with. But for the doctors and the medical staff, each day is a test of their emotional limits.

"Unlike the parent, the sibling or the spouse who can continue to mourn over this person that they lost, we always have to pick ourselves up, go back into that unit, and take care of somebody else’s kin," says Claire Angeles, acting administrative officer who has been with the institute for over a decade. "Helping people cope with this incurable disease is psychologically rewarding," she says. "But sometimes, I feel like in 10 years I’ve probably aged 20 or 30 years."

"As you know, some people who enter hospitals never go home again and their families aren’t the only ones who grieve," Angeles adds.

Nevertheless, she never forgets to smile and makes it a point to know each of the patients, at least by name.

The doctors and the medical staff at the Institute, Dr. Llave explains, hide human failings such as tiredness and stress, their worries, and lack to sleep by appearing warm and friendly to patients with each encounter.

"If you are not in a loving space; if you are coming from fear, resentment, guilt, obligation or some negative space; or if you are feeling overly responsible when you are caring for somebody slowly succumbing to such a terrible disease, your role will become burdensome and you will burn out," says Dr. Llave.

Perhaps fear, anger, distress, pity, and hopelessness are emotions not necessarily unique to Dr. Llave’s profession. But continuous exposure to these sorrowful emotions can easily break anybody to pieces.

And well, maybe not. "This sort of stress hasn’t broken us yet," says Dr. Llave, "and doesn’t appear to be crippling our profession which keeps its hopes high to the promise of many new sources of healing."