Creativity Wellbeing And Mental Health Practice

This book argues that some aspects of mental health practice have become mechanical, joyless and uninspiring, leading to a loss of creativity and wellbeing. A high level of wellbeing is essential to mental health and contemporary mental health care – and creativity is at the heart of this. A greater awareness of everyday creativity, the arts and creative approaches to mental health practice, learning and leadership can help us reinvent and reinvigorate mental health care. This, combined with a clearer understanding of the complex concept of wellbeing, can enable practitioners to adopt fresh perspectives and roles that can enrich their work. Creativity and wellbeing are fundamental to reducing occupational stress and promoting professional satisfaction. Introducing a new model of creative mental health care combined with recommendations for wellbeing, Creativity, Wellbeing and Mental Health Practice is a practical, evidence-based book for students, practitioners and researchers in mental health nursing and related disciplines.

This book brings together leading UK researchers in the field of arts and health, including creative arts therapies. The chapters are based on presentations originally given at a UK seminar series on scholarship and research on connections between the creative arts, health and wellbeing, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It will be of interest to anyone practising or researching arts and health, in both hospitals and community settings. Because of the nature of the work, the volume is cross-disciplinary in theory and multi-disciplinary in practice. As such, it will appeal to a cross-section of practitioners and thinkers. Research in the field of arts, health and wellbeing has developed considerably in recent years, and in the dialogue of this book some of the big questions for the agenda are addressed.

Narratives of Art Practice and Mental Wellbeing draws on extensive research carried out with mental health service users who are also practicing artists. Using narrative data gained through hours of reflective conversation, it explores not whether art can contribute to positive wellbeing and improved mental health - as this is now established ground - but rather how art works, and the role art making can play in people’s lives as they encounter crises, relapse, recovery or ‘beyonding’. The book maps the delicate ways in which finding a means to tell our story sometimes is the creative project we seek, and offers a reminder of how intrinsically linked our life trajectories are with creative opportunities. It describes the wide range of artistic activity occurring in health and community settings and the meanings of these practices to people with histories of mental turbulence. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the book explore the stories and various forms of visual arts practices spoken of, and considers the art making processes, the creative moments and the objects which in some cases have changed people’s lives. The seven chapters of the book offer a blend of personal testimony, theory, debate, critique and celebration, and examine key topics of deliberation within the fields of art therapy, arts in health, community arts practice, participatory arts, and widening participation within arts education. It will be valuable reading for researchers, students, artists and practitioners in these fields.

This book weaves together service users' lived experiences of mental health recovery and ideas about how creative activities such as art, music, and creative reading and writing can promote it, particularly within social and community settings.

"Includes access to Oxford Medicine Online"--Cover.

Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield. This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. The reviewed evidence included study designs such as uncontrolled pilot studies, case studies, small-scale cross-sectional surveys, nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, community-wide ethnographies and randomized controlled trials from diverse disciplines. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; promoting arts engagement at the individual, local and national levels; and supporting cross-sectoral collaboration.

Contemporary practices in mental health (and social care) are increasingly characterized by approaches that overly simplify social, political, and psychological concerns. The persistence and ubiquity of models designated to tackle diagnoses through focused technologies serve to minimize the human encounter in all its relational and systemic complexity. Practice becomes a technological activity instead of one concerned with the unique creative potential in meeting with others in therapy. With the growth of privatized mental health services, many practitioners are facing a plethora of "Must Do's" that focus on measurable outcomes, with clear goals and cost effective treatments. Yet, in practice, such apparent clarity of purpose often leads to bureaucratic clutter and risk aversion instead of clearing the decks for creativity. The focus of this book is how the practitioner or therapist can navigate around current practices in order to avoid falling into the rapids of quick fix solutions, whilst staying afloat to find realistic outcomes to human dilemmas that are brought to us.

Case studies and perspectives from around the globe illustrate examples of effective collaborations between clinical creative arts therapists and arts in health practitioners. Reaching beyond silos, these professionals can collaborate to deliver inspirational practice in a variety of settings. Leading experts explain how they have pioneered arts-based practice, developed successful partnerships and overcome difficulties in fostering relationships to offer better support and increase access to their services by the public. Discussions surrounding policy, funding and international initiatives towards integration offer a timely call to action. By working together, we reach collective goals of positively impacting clients' mental health, wellbeing and quality of life through the arts.