At Home: Healing Poetry

There’s increasing awareness of the healing power of art, and both creating and experiencing it are seen as a form of therapy. In fact, health care practitioners have been offering art therapy to patients to speed the healing process, whether mental or physical. Now, It’s the health care workers themselves who have the opportunity to use art to deal with their demanding jobs.

As The Toronto Star reports, Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital has hired its first poet in residence, Ronna Bloom, to lead an innovative new program for hospital staff.

The program arose after Bloom conducted several well-received workshops at the hospital last year. It is conducted in a group setting because, as hospital psychiatrist Allan Peterkin told reporters, ?We often work in teams around a patient . . . It makes perfect sense that this kind of reflection should happen in a group.?

Bloom, a celebrated poet who also has worked as a psychotherapist, told reporters that ?It’s therapeutic for [hospital staff] to stop, write and reflect,? adding that ?[it] makes them better at their jobs when they put down the pen and go back.?

Around the World: Parade Paperwork

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, one of the most famous parades of the year, is watched by millions across North America. Held in New York City, It’s also attended by throngs who brave the cold weather for a closer glimpse of the marching bands, balloons, and floats. But this year, in-person paradegoers got something a little more personal–way too personal.

As PIX 11 News reports, paradegoers were showered with confetti that included ?social security numbers and banking information for police employees, some of whom are undercover officers.?

Macy’s told reporters that it uses ?commercially manufactured, multicolor confetti, not shredded paper.? However, the confetti that rained down on this year’s parade included shredded paper that appears to be ?documents . . . from the Nassau County Police Department.? The shredded strips included confidential personal information as well as license plate numbers, arrest records, and incident reports.

Currently the source of the shredded document confetti is ?still a mystery,? although the Nassau Police Department is ?very concerned? and is investigating whether the scandal resulted from negligence or a deliberate action.