Healing Arts
Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
 Pet Therapy: Hazel, one of Sutter’s Pet Therapy Team Members |
Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento is proud to include a “healing arts” component to the quality care we already provide. Sutter’s existing arts programs, provides opportunities for our employees to develop and share their talents with the medical center community. The programs include:
- Music Therapy – The Sutter Music Therapy Program promotes wellness, manages stress, reduces pain and helps patients express their feelings. Music therapy is considered to be a powerful tool that uses music therapeutically to address physical, psychological and cognitive issues for adult and pediatric patients. Since 2003, Sutter Medical Center Foundation has funded the Sutter’s in house music therapy program to benefit adult cancer patients. The program is offered by a certified music therapist. Sutter also partners with local organizations like the Sacramento Philharmonic and the B Street Theatre to bring entertainers into the hospital to lift the spirits of our patients and their guests.
- Dance Movement Therapy -- Sutter uses its Dance Movement Therapy program as a way to enhance healing and wellness through improved body image, energy level and sense of self. Based on the interrelationship of body, mind and emotion, Dance Movement Therapy uses movement to further the emotional, physical and spiritual integration of the individual. The program is offered by a registered dance movement therapist.
- The Children’s Bereavement Art Group –This group is facilitated by an art therapist with an extensive background in childhood grief, and allows children to express their thoughts and feelings through a variety of art activities, including drawing and painting. The goal of the program is to provide a safe place for children to process grief and loss through creative outlets that facilitate healing.
- Sutter Pet Therapy Program -- Our Child Life Program added pet therapy in 2003 as a way to help ease the minds and fears that children have while staying in the hospital. The pets are graduates of Canine Companion for Independence, which trains dogs to be assistants to those who are disabled. Their unique bedside manner brings joy and comfort to the youngest patients.
A New Healing Environment
The vision of the Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center will create an environment of healing arts inspired by nature.
- The art program for the Pediatrics Department represents an area that is within the river, namely a playful attitude about being in the river. The area is characterized by the feelings one experiences while playing in the water—various shades of blue and aquatic imagery; soft flowing materials and textures all reinforce this aesthetic. Wall colors, lighting, artwork, furniture, and even the latest medical equipment and technology are all designed, where possible, to cheer and comfort the child and family.
- The art program theme, primarily expressed in Waiting Rooms and Patient Rooms in the Intensive Care Unit on the fourth floor represents the journey across the river. To swim the river to the other side presents a difficult journey. The journey of a patient, emerging through difficult times in an Operating Room, or coming from some other physically taxing occurrence, making their way to the ICU, parallels this metaphor. The interior aesthetic, therefore, is calming, with natural colors and soothing sounds like that of a riverbank haven.
- The women’s floor design aesthetic reflects a grassy river country meadow at dawn. The colors and textures of the walls and floors mimic this picturesque setting. The joy of new and expectant mothers and fathers is reinforced by images of blooming flowers and colors of the rising sun-signifying birth and wonderful possibilities to be realized.
Performances to Life Spirits
The B Street Theatre was originally founded in 1986 to bring live performance excitement to children. The company has successfully entertained young and old audiences for many years in its two-theater location on B Street, but has outgrown its current location. Looking to incorporate entertainment into their urban village concept, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and B Street Theatre have partnered to build Northern California’s first theatre facility dedicated to children’s theatre.
- When complete in 2012 the 51,000 square foot Children’s Theatre of California will include:
- Main 365-seat theatre to primarily house children’s theatre programming
- Second 250-seat theatre to showcase B Street Theatre productions
- Flexible performance space will allow many different types of productions
- Theatres providing an improved audience experience through an intimate environment
- Lobby and concession areas and box office for the public; dressing rooms, storage and administrative areas for the actors and staff
- A wide array of performing arts will be featured on the Bank of America Arts Stage including music, theatre, dance, poetry and comedy. By promoting and coordinating exposure to the creative arts for patients, families, students, volunteers, visitors and employees, the Bank of America Arts Stage will be a catalyst for bringing the performing arts to life at Sutter.
 Jerald Silva: Artist Jerald Silva Working on his steamy window panel |
Foggy Windows Provide Clarity
Nationally acclaimed watercolor artist Jerald Silva came to Sacramento in 1936—through the doors of Sutter General Hospital. His father was working as a laborer on the Tower Bridge the day his mother was in labor at Sutter. Very soon, it will be Silva’s 14 floor-to-ceiling steamy-window panels, featuring the Tower Bridge and other Sacramento landmarks that expectant mothers and others will enjoy throughout the new Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center and Ose Adams Medical Pavilion.