The timer on my phone is set to 4 minutes. “OK everybody, go!” A group of folks start scribbling in old school notebooks. We are writing something pretty simple. In fact, I had asked, “What is something terrific that happened this week? People actually smile as they write. This might not be what they expected when they joined a cancer support group called “Write For Your Life”. It wasn’t what I expected either. As they hit the three minute mark, I remember my first experience with therapeutic writing. I sat down at a Starbucks, put a notebook on one of their tiny round tables and was pressing so hard with my pen through the paper that I was sure I was engraving my thoughts on the unsuspecting wooden surface. It seems the wooden laminate wasn’t ready for how angry I was at being sick. I had written things like “Why did I get cancer? What am I going to do now? How am I going to pay my bills after surgery?” That was a pretty tough day. I certainly didn’t leave the coffee shop with any easy answers, but I did feel a bit better. It turns out, that wasn’t a coincidence. My friend Eugene Nam explained to me that Therapeutic Writing has benefits that would make any drug company jealous. Writing and journaling when you’re sick has been proven to (believe it or not) lower blood pressure, alleviate depression, reduce stress-and get this-reduce the length of hospital stays.
I say “Two Minutes” to the group. They write a bit faster. I noticed something else that happens as well. When we write in a group we give people the option of sharing what they have come up with. People tell bits of their story and we all learn from everyone’s experience. At times we have all doubled over in laughter when someone talks about something ridiculous that happened or listen intently while a member shares a particularly tough challenge.
My timer rolls past one minute. People scribble even faster, trying to put the finishing touches on their short piece. “Remember, it’s OK if it’s not perfect, it’s your story and however you tell it, is just fine.”
My phone chimes.
“Ok Everybody, times up. Does anyone want to read their piece?”
I have no idea what’s going to happen next.
Here’s some fancy research on how great Therapeutic Writing is…
Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations. (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986)
In clinical populations, a meta-analysis (Frisina et al, 2004) of nine expressive writing studies found a significant benefit for health.
Expressive writing about one’s breast cancer, breast cancer trauma and facts related to breast cancer, significantly improved and physical and psychological health, such as the quality-of-life (Craft, Davis, & Paulson, 2012; Henry et al. 2010)
Testicular cancer survivor participants assigned to the positive expressive writing showed significant improvements in physical and psychological health (Pauley, Morman, & Floyd, 2011)
It was my absolute honour to present A Spoonful of Laughter to the L’Chaim Cancer Support Group for Jewish Women last night. From the moment I walked in people were telling me jokes. “Oh, You’re the comedian? I’ve got a joke for you! A postman and a raccoon were walking down the street and…” And so it went. I was in stitches.
Taking a group of people who have had very little to no experience doing Improv through a workshop can be an adventure but these ladies went for it with incredible trust and enthusiasm. We talked about the medical benefits of laughter and how laughter can be such a powerful and positive tool for healing in our lives. As always at about the 20 minute mark the energy in the room shifts in a palpable way. We transformed from a bunch of individuals concerned about how we look in front of others to a unified group that is ready to share and take risks. Frankly, I love it. I’ve seen this happen again and again with groups of 15 to crowds of well over 100. When that happens it sets the stage for very good things to happen. We could see bits of this last night when by the end of our evening people were sharing their stories about the cancer journey, laughing at each other’s jokes and generally having a blast. Who knew a cancer support group could be such a good time?
Got a problem? Got a situation? Need to figure something out? I don’t have the answer, but you do!
What the heck am I talking about? Well, I believe in the power of collaboration, I believe that a group of people thinking about the same issue or facing the same challenge are infinitely more powerful than one person trying to hammer out a solution. It seems to me that as individuals we often don’t have the entire solution to a problem. We might have a piece of it that we are pretty proud of, but the whole thing? That’s pretty rare. However, our piece of the puzzle might be pretty significant, and somebody across the room might have a great piece of the puzzle as well. Heck, somebody might have even defined the question in an interesting way that takes the discussion in an entirely new direction. When people come together and commit to “The Wisdom in The Room” process very good things happen. This has been explored with Cancer Patients, Health Care Professionals and Social Media Experts. Its fun, stimulating, challenging and a ton of fun.
Recently I had the honour of exploring The Wisdom In the Room with a group of talented people for The Ontario Hospital Association. It was an absolute blast. We weren’t messing around either. We were doing hard core work on how to increase patient engagement through social media. After about 15 minutes ideas were flying. People were sharing their strategies on how to improve the experience of patients across the province. I am struck by the idea that many times we actually have the resources we need to do what we want to do. We just have to be brave enough and generous enough to share our ideas with a like minded group of people and then the magic happens.
So, I’ve been talking a lot about the Ontario Hospital Association‘s conference on Social Media. One of the great examples of patient engagement came from the Niagara Health System. They have created an online community for patients who are doing dialysis. When folks are at the hospital and doing the procedure, they are given the opportunity to log in to “Google hangouts” (yes! you can click on that link!) and chat with each other while the process is going on. This helps them feel a sense of community and they can compare notes/give each other support while they are getting treatment. Response has been terrific.
Cool eh? I did a brief interview with Anna Cobian from The Niagara Health System. Check it out. Oh, and the link to the Niagara Health System is here. Who’s the dorky looking guy in the preview? Oh, that’s me.
Hey Niagara Health System!
On behalf of patients everywhere, please accept this virtual cappuccino as a virtual pat on the back. Thanks for making a difference.
So, Gilda Radner was all kinds of awesome. She was a brilliant, brave and very funny comedian who did pioneering work at The Second City and Saturday Night Live. She also had cancer, wrote a book about the experience and a great organization called Gilda’s Club was created in her memory. Gilda’s Club does tremendous work helping people going through cancer right now. Seriously. These places are awesome.
My friend Lisa D’Apolito is doing a film about Gilda called Love Gilda!
She took the time to do an interview with me here at roberthawke.com
People are doing amazing things across the province!
It was thrilling to be a part ofThe Ontario Hospital Association’s Conference on Social Media. Social Media Professionals and Health Experts from across Ontario gathered together to explore how we could have more positive impact through patient engagement. I was crazy about the fact that patients were being included in the process.
It was my honour to facilitate our segment, which featured a panel of patients advocates (Natrice Rese, Deb Maskens, Kathy Kastner, Annette McKinnon, and Zal Press) collaborating with social media experts and healthcare professionals. Questions we asked the group included “What are examples of positive patient engagement?” “How can we encourage more patient engagement?” “What innovative techniques are being used to increase patient engagement with social media right now?”
All the patients agreed that one of the main ingredients they want in their interactions with health care institutions is authenticity! It was amazing to be in an environment where patients and people working in healthcare had meaningful and honest dialogue. This isn’t always an easy process. Some of the issues we talked about do not have simple solutions, but there is tremendous value in addressing what the patient experience is really like and expressing ideas across the different silos in healthcare.
Leading a group in a collaborative discussion like this can be a bit like driving a red convertible down a road you don’t know. It’s exciting, fun, and you never really know what’s around the next turn. Also, you occasionally get bugs in your teeth.*
Quite frankly, I find it quite thrilling to be with a group of over a hundred smart people who are determined to collaborate. We made some great discoveries as we went and heard some examples of how people are making a difference right now.
All this and they gave us butter-tarts.
Big shout outs toToronto East General,Niagara Health Centre, andKingston General Hospitalfor sharing their terrific innovations with the group.
I’m going to do a blog on the specific innovations that are happening now. When we share these advances, good things happen and everybody wins. I’m looking at youNiagara Health Centre.
* O.K. I was exaggerating about the bugs.
To learn more about what these incredible people are doing please click on the links below…
The timer on my phone is set to 4 minutes. “OK everybody, go!” A group of folks start scribbling in old school notebooks. We are writing something pretty simple. In fact, I had asked, “What is something terrific that happened this week? People actually smile as they write. This might not be what they expected when they joined a cancer support group called “Write For Your Life”. It wasn’t what I expected either. As they hit the three minute mark, I remember my first experience with therapeutic writing. I sat down at a Starbucks, put a notebook on one of their tiny round tables and was pressing so hard with my pen through the paper that I was sure I was engraving my thoughts on the unsuspecting wooden surface. It seems the wooden laminate wasn’t ready for how angry I was at being sick. I had written things like “Why did I get cancer? What am I going to do now? How am I going to pay my bills after surgery?” That was a pretty tough day. I certainly didn’t leave the coffee shop with any easy answers, but I did feel a bit better. It turns out, that wasn’t a coincidence. My friend Eugene Nam explained to me that Therapeutic Writing has benefits that would make any drug company jealous. Writing and journaling when you’re sick has been proven to (believe it or not) lower blood pressure, alleviate depression, reduce stress-and get this-reduce the length of hospital stays.
