An exploration of the literature on group art therapy and the mental health recovery of adult inpatients on psychiatric rehabilitation wards.

Abstract

A person may be referred to an NHS inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation service if they are no longer able to safely manage in the community because of the impact of a mental health condition, such as psychosis, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and/or bipolar disorder, and if they require care and treatment to assist them with their recovery. It is noteworthy, that having a mental health illness alone does equate to someone requiring psychiatric rehabilitation support. In fact approximately only 1 out of 100 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia require psychiatric rehabilitation support (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2015). Previous studies have evidenced how art therapy interventions in psychiatric rehabilitation settings, particularly referring to the therapeutic relationship between the patient and art therapist, being a part of an art therapy group and use of the art materials, can support patients’ recovery. This includes, helping patients with making sense of themselves and their mental illness, self-regulation, communicating their needs with others through artwork/verbally, increasing self-esteem and in creating a sense of hope for their future. This narrative literature review explores the to get greater insight in to the existing evidence-base surrounding art therapy groups in inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation settings, with specific focus on how they may or may not support patients’ in relation to their mental health recovery. Thematic analysis was the chosen methodological means. The Person-centred Research Four Construct Framework by Titchen et al. (2017 p. 33) was also integrated into this critique of the literature, due to the person-centred lens of the researcher, which led to each source being subjectively discussed in relation to how person-centred it is according to it’s pre-requisites, environment, processes and outcomes. The main conclusions from this study are that art therapy groups offered to people with mental health conditions are largely supportive in supporting patients with their recovery, including providing opportunities for connectedness, hope, development of sense of self and identity, meaning, empowerment and difficulties. Gaps in the literature were identified included the lack of lived experience accounts on the recovery of inpatients in psychiatric rehabilitation settings and limited contemporary research on art therapy interventions in psychiatric rehabilitation wards possibly due to lack of resources and service provision in this area and in general. In addition, understanding of recovery varies widely across the literature which may be another reason for the limited research in this area.