“A respite thing” – A qualitative study of a creative arts leisure programme for family caregivers of people with dementia

This study explored the meanings of participating in a five-week creative arts leisure programme designed for family caregivers of people with dementia, using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Eight carers attended and four who met the eligibility criteria agreed to be interviewed. Participants experienced the arts group as providing a sense of freedom and respite, strengthening identity through promoting achievement, offering social support through a collective focus on art- and craft-making, and increasing resilience for coping with caring. Some found the five-week programme too short. Benefits were linked to the security of knowing that loved ones with dementia were close by, being well cared for. Further research is needed into the longer-term benefits of creative arts groups for promoting carer well-being

Bedside theatre performance and its effects on hospitalised children's well-being

This article reports on practice-based pilot research being undertaken at Birmingham Children's Hospital in England on the impact of bedside theatre performance on hospitalised children's well-being. It discusses the process of creating theatre for sick children, connecting with the hospital and working within the hospital tight routines, dealing with ethics, working with theatre artists and performing to children bedside. It also reports on evidence collected by questionnaire and interviews about the perceived benefits of bedside theatre by children and their parent/carers. This emphasis on the process is appropriate for theatre practitioners, arts therapists and clinical staff who work with hospitalised children

The impact of music festival attendance on young people's psychological and social well being

Although the social, emotional, physical and cognitive benefits of engagement in music are well known, little research has been conducted on the psychological benefits of music in the context of music festivals. This article draws on theoretical constructs from the field of positive psychology to interpret the impact of music festival attendance on participants' psychological and social well-being. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a focus group and questionnaire survey with young festival-goers aged 18-29 years. Four facets of the music festival experience were identified that were associated with well-being outcomes. These are explored and discussed with reference both to participants' focus group comments and statistical analysis of questionnaire responses. A conceptual model is presented in order to guide further research in this area, and enable both festival organizers and attendees to take optimal advantage of the potential of music festivals to impact positively on young adults' psychological and social well-being

Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015

We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand 1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and 2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis, we identified frames of recovery, stigma and economy. The recovery frame, which emphasised that mental illness can be treated similarly to physical illness, positioned arts participation as a form of therapy that can complement or substitute medication. The stigma frame presented arts participation as a mechanism for challenging social conceptions that mentally ill individuals are incapable of productive work. The economy frame discussed the economic burden of mentally ill individuals and portrayed arts participation as facilitating their return to employment. Using thematic analysis, which paid attention to the representation of social actors, we found that service users were identified as the prime beneficiaries of arts initiatives and arts participation was conceptualised as a way to bring people with mental health issues together. We discuss these findings against existing research on media representations of mental health and the concept of ‘mutual recovery’ and suggest what wider concurrent developments in the areas of mental health and the media may account for the uncovered frames and themes

The aesthetic and cultural pursuits of patients with stroke

peer-reviewedTables to accompany this article on second fileGOAL: There has been an increasing interest in the arts in healthcare, with a suggestion that the arts and aesthetics can augment patient outcomes in stroke and other illnesses. Designing such programmes requires better knowledge of the artistic, aesthetic and cultural pursuits of people affected by stroke. The aim of this study was to obtain the insights of this group about the profile of arts and aesthetics activities in their lives as well as the influence of stroke on these aspects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients attending a stroke service were administered questions adapted from the Irish Arts Council’s 2006 questionnaire on participation in aesthetics and cultural pursuits, Information was also collected on stroke type and present functional and cognitive status. Thirty-eight patients were interviewed. Of these, twenty were inpatients in hospital at the time of the interview and eighteen were interviewed in an outpatient setting. FINDINGS: Popular activities included mainstream cinema, listening to music, dancing, attending plays or musicals and being outdoors. Many patients ceased these activities after their stroke, mostly due to health issues and inaccessibility. The majority of patients valued the importance of the arts in the healthcare setting. CONCLUSION: This study gives a perspective for the first time on the aesthetic and cultural pursuits of stroke patients prior to their stroke. It portrays a wide variety of cultural and leisure activities, and the cessation of these post-stroke. It revealed the restrictions patients felt on gaining access to leisure pursuits both while in hospital and following discharge.Acceptedpeer-reviewe

Safe spaces, support, social capital: a critical analysis of artists working with vulnerable young people in educational contexts

This article provides a critical and thematic analysis of three research projects involving artists working with vulnerable young people in educational contexts. It argues that artists create safe spaces in contrast to traditional educational activities but it will also raise questions about what constitutes such a space for participants. It will then show that skilled artists often mediate dichotomous pedagogical positions, characterised by competency and performance. It will employ the metaphor of a trellis to illustrate how artists provide flexible structure and support whilst allowing freedom and growth. Finally, it will discuss the social impact of the arts through the lens of social capital theory, highlighting the utility of the approach whilst also indicating areas for critical refinement

What Works for Wellbeing? A systematic review of wellbeing outcomes for music and singing in adults

IMS: The role of arts and music in supporting subjective wellbeing (SWB) is increasingly recognised. Robust evidence is needed to support policy and practice. This article reports on the first of four reviews of Culture, Sport and Wellbeing (CSW) commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded What Works Centre for Wellbeing ( https://whatworkswellbeing.org/ ). OBJECTIVE: To identify SWB outcomes for music and singing in adults. METHODS: Comprehensive literature searches were conducted in PsychInfo, Medline, ERIC, Arts and Humanities, Social Science and Science Citation Indexes, Scopus, PILOTS and CINAHL databases. From 5,397 records identified, 61 relevant records were assessed using GRADE and CERQual schema. RESULTS: A wide range of wellbeing measures was used, with no consistency in how SWB was measured across the studies. A wide range of activities was reported, most commonly music listening and regular group singing. Music has been associated with reduced anxiety in young adults, enhanced mood and purpose in adults and mental wellbeing, quality of life, self-awareness and coping in people with diagnosed health conditions. Music and singing have been shown to be effective in enhancing morale and reducing risk of depression in older people. Few studies address SWB in people with dementia. While there are a few studies of music with marginalised communities, participants in community choirs tend to be female, white and relatively well educated. Research challenges include recruiting participants with baseline wellbeing scores that are low enough to record any significant or noteworthy change following a music or singing intervention. CONCLUSIONS: There is reliable evidence for positive effects of music and singing on wellbeing in adults. There remains a need for research with sub-groups who are at greater risk of lower levels of wellbeing, and on the processes by which wellbeing outcomes are, or are not, achieved

Arts practices in unreasonable doubt? Reflections on understandings of arts practices in healthcare contexts

This article suggests that the discourse on arts and health encompass contemporary arts practices as an active and engaged analytical activity. Distinctions between arts therapy and arts practice are made to suggest that clinical evidence-based evaluation, while appropriate for arts therapy, is not appropriate for arts practice and in effect cast them in unreasonable doubt. Themes in current discourse on “arts” and “health” are broadly sketched to provide a context for discussion of arts practices. Approaches to knowledge validation in relation to each domain are discussed. These discourses are applied to the Irish healthcare context, offering a reading of three different art projects; it suggests a multiplicity of analyses beyond causal positive health gains. It is suggested that the social turn in medicine and the social turn in arts practices share some similar pre-occupations that warrant further attention