For people with eating disorders, said Patrice Lockhart, art can be an important part of their recovery.
Lockhart is the medical director of the New England Eating Disorders, a comprehensive program to help people with eating disorders in Maine.
“We have the most intensive eating disorder program — the only one that’s at this level — in the state,” said Lockhart.
Formerly associated with Mercy Hospital in Portland, NEED joined Sweetser in January, taking over a two-story home on their 380 acre campus located just off of Route 1 in Saco.
“I wasn’t sure how this would go on a campus, without having the medical support that I was used to (at Mercy Hospital),” said Lockhart. “But it’s really just expanded our ability to treat a wider variety of people. More space, more support. A system more used to broader thinking.”
VARIOUS ART PROJECTS completed by NEED patients are pictured in the above photos.
“We bring them to us, or we help train their outpatient therapists and their physicians to take care of them when they’re not needing the highest standard anymore,” explained Lockhart.
NEED deals with hundreds of individuals a year from all over the state, and a handful of patients in need of intensive treatment come to their new Saco location. The duration and type of treatment is customized individually.
“At any one time, we have between five and 20 (patients on campus),” said Lockhart. “And we assess probably 500 people a year, and admit maybe 250-300 of them for three weeks to six months at a time, depending on how much progress they need to make.”
Patients range in age from children to the elderly, though most patients are in the 14-25 year old range. In recent years, said Lockhart, they’ve seen patients trending towards younger children.
No matter the age of the participants, they all go through treatment together as a group.
People with eating disorders, said LCSW Jane Prairie, become hyper-focused on their eating disorders. Usually, NEED structures activities around and between meals to help with their treatment. While nutritionists and medical professionals address patients’ physical needs, art and other activities help them heal mentally.
“It may be a lecture it may be an activity,” explained Lockhart. “It could be drawing, it may be finger-painting. Anything that’s creative is going to help our patients because we’re trying to broaden their minds.”
“Sometimes we have a group of musicians as patients, and we’ll do karaoke and stuff,” she added.
Art can play an important part in the treatment process, and can help patients express themselves in positive ways and see the world differently than they had before.
“I think that’s the beauty of art, too, same as music,” said Lockhart.
At NEED, art projects can take many forms. Often, said Lockhart, it’s initiated by the patients. Some projects that patients have done is painting rocks, drawing, decorating masks and using mosaic pottery.
“Sometimes it’s not (structured) at all, and sometimes we’ll dedicate an hour, or two hours even, to playing with mosaic pottery and relate it to what their eating disorder experience has been.”
Art can be used to represent memories, aspirations or even how they view themselves positively.
“Sometimes it’s related to what they lost — what they don’t do anymore that they used to enjoy,” added Lockhart.
An important part of using art therapeutically, notes Prairie, is that the way they express themselves is accepted positively. Finding a new way to express themselves or finding a new talent can be a boon to their self-esteem, she added.
Art projects vary from group to group, and is really driven by the individuals comprising the group.
“I would say that the work we do with art supplies is based on the creativity of the group at hand,” said Lockhart. “We just see how organically it plays out (in each group).”
Although NEED isn’t a certified art therapy program, the use of art projects by participants can have many of the same effects as a formal program, notes Lockhart.
According to the American Art Therapy Association, art can “improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.”
Lockhart keeps a few creations from former patients on display at her new office at Sweetser, from a collage about nature to a rock painted blue with a green outline of a heart.
Although the data is limited for their patients, Susan said that it is likely that those who continue to use art therapeutically after they finish the program are less likely to relapse.
“My guess would be absolutely,” said Susan.
nstrout@timesrecord.com
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