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Art Therapy Research Grant—Deadline Sept 1st!

Quick! Snag this opportunity to get a $1000 research grant offered to you by American Art Resources & Society for the Arts in Healthcare.

Environmental Arts Research Grant

A $1,000 award, sponsored by American Art Resources, Houston, will be provided to a Principal Investigator to conduct or supplement Arts in Healthcare research. Society members from all countries are invited to apply. Selection will be made on the merit, innovation, and feasibility of the research proposal.

Purpose and Application Information

A challenge in healthcare today is the dearth of caregivers and a consistent human support system. Within the context of the arts, often an artist or a creative art therapist can spend only a few hours with the patient (or a stressed family member or staff). While the impact of an art intervention can be powerful during this time, and have a ripple effect afterwards, there is still a large body of time that the patients and care providers are left to their own means – and this is an opportunity for the more passive creative art interventions.

This grant is focused on research on art interventions that become part of the healthcare environment. Such environmental art interventions do not require the presence of a creative arts therapist or an artist facilitator to be experienced by the patients, caregivers or staff. They are passive rather than participative interventions. In other words, the individual “takes in” the experience rather than actively engaging in it. Examples could be viewing visual art or murals on the wall, using Virtual Reality glasses during procedures, listening to music or a poetry reading or watching videos, to list a few. Such interventions do not require a caregiver interface (via the presence of a creative arts therapist or artist). There is a small but significant body of research that establishes that exposure to art can affect patients’ healthcare experience. For example, research shows that viewing visual art (static or dynamic) and listening to music can have an impact on the stress, anxiety and pain perception in patients.

It is of value to investigate and evaluate whether other environmental interventions, such as sound cones, lighting installations, plasma screen interventions, healing gardens, viewing (not participating) in live performances, being exposed to pleasant odors and aromas etc., can improve the patient/caregiver experience and, more importantly, whether this impact can be measured through rigorous research. We need more research to understand how art that appeals to one or more of the senses can improve the healthcare environment and impact the healthcare experience. We also need research to investigate what specific aspects of the art contribute towards its therapeutic impact.

Creative arts therapists, artists, researchers, administrators, designers, healthcare providers and students are all encouraged to apply for this grant.

To view more information about this grant, please check out the Society for Arts in Healthcare website.

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A randomized trial to test the effectiveness of art therapy for children with asthma

Published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. I don’t have access to the full article, but maybe some of you do, so I decided to include this as a post :)

Abstract:

Background

Art therapy has been used to help children cope with chronic illness but has not been specifically tested with children who have asthma.

Objective

To test an art therapy intervention in a randomized controlled trial in children with asthma.

Methods

Twenty-two children with asthma were randomized to an active art therapy or wait-list control group. Those in the active art therapy group participated in 60-minute art therapy sessions once a week for 7 weeks. Sessions included specific art therapy tasks designed to encourage expression, discussion, and problem-solving in response to the emotional burden of chronic illness. Measures taken at baseline, immediately after, and 6 months after the final art therapy session included the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale applied to the Person Picking an Apple from a Tree assessment, the parent and child versions of the Pediatric Quality of Life Asthma Module, and the Beck Youth Inventories. Those children assigned to the wait-list control group completed all evaluations at the same intervals as the children receiving art therapy but did not receive the art therapy interventions.

Results

Score changes from baseline to completion of art therapy indicated (1) improved problem-solving and affect drawing scores; (2) improved worry, communication, and total quality of life scores; and (3) improved Beck anxiety and self concept scores in the active group relative to the control group. At 6 months, the active group maintained some positive changes relative to the control group including (1) drawing affect scores, (2) the worry and quality of life scores, and (3) the Beck anxiety score. Frequency of asthma exacerbations before and after the 6-month study interval did not differ between the 2 groups.

Conclusion

This was the first randomized trial demonstrating that children with asthma receive benefit from art therapy that includes decreased anxiety and increased quality of life.

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Schizophrenia can be simulated…

…within a computer program meant to mimic learning within the human brain. One more step towards understanding the origins of this often debilitating disorder, and support of the hyperlearning hypothesis.

Read more here and here.

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The MATISE STUDY

Authored by Mike Crawford, et al, a new, randomized, 24 month study on the effectiveness of art therapy with adults suffering from schizophrenia, is underway. Almost all the data has been collected, although analysis is yet to be done. The full article describing the research thus far is open for everyone to view.

“We believe that this is the first large scale pragmatic trial of Art Therapy for people with schizophrenia.” (Abstract)

Keep the research coming!

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Asthma and Art Therapy

May’s online issue of the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology included a study that demonstrated the effectiveness of art therapy with pediatric asthma patients.

“In art therapy, patients create artwork that helps express their feelings about an illness, a trauma or medical concerns. The artwork can then serve as a starting point for discussions about these issues. Researchers believe that creating art helps participants establish distance between themselves and their medical concerns. They learn to understand that they have a personal identity outside of their illness. It is believed to be particularly effective with children because they often do not have the adult capabilities to verbally articulate their emotions, perceptions, or beliefs, and often can more comfortably convey ideas in ways other than talking.”


Science Daily

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Online Games to Boost Self-Esteem

self esteem



Researchers at McGill University have created several online activities called Self Esteem Games, helping people build self confidence and stay on the positive side of life. The games force you to recognize happy faces and/or your own name, creating a positive association to yourself and others in your mind. In other words, the exercises foster an individual’s ability to recognize and focus on positive environmental stimuli (i.e., smiling people) rather than the negative, allowing the players to practice having a positive or more optimistic attentional bias.

The games are easy, fun, fast and somewhat meditative…something that would be appropriate for pretty much anyone to do on their own, or perhaps at the beginning or end of a therapy session…or even as homework after a therapy session is over. Homework that’s fun? Well, that IS something to be excited about!