Patients at Catholic hospital use humor to help cope with disease

Published: 2004-05-13

CHICAGO RIDGE, Ill. (CNS) -- Bob Malloy leaned back in his chair, stretched his long legs in front of him and started cracking jokes. Wearing an oversized green plastic tam-o'-shanter, and fluffing the red and orange scarves he held in front of his face, Malloy accepted the good-natured teasing of his friends about his unexpected skill in juggling. "I spent six years in clown college," he deadpanned. But Malloy never had any formal juggling training, and neither did any of the other 20 or so people who gather the second Wednesday of every month at Little Company of Mary Hospital's health education center in the Chicago suburb of Chicago Ridge. What the patients mostly have in common is a history of cancer or some other chronic disease, and a desire to use humor to help them cope. Nurses Joan Murphy, the hospital's director of community health services, and Anne Bartalotta, manager of health education services, work together on the CHEER program, which stands for Choices, Humor, Enhancement, Education and Renewal.

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