Tag: mental health

tHE CREATIVE ARTS and Mental Health

Posted on October 31, 2024 by communications - Blogs

tHE CREATIVE ARTS and Mental Health

At Create, we get to see first-hand how the creative arts enhance individuals’ wellbeing. This was reflected in our 2023/24 social value report: 100% of our participants said that attending Create projects improved their quality of life; and 98% of them reported improved self-esteem.

Our findings reflect recent research from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) which found that “people who took part in arts and crafts reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction, as well as a stronger sense that life is worthwhile.” Moreover, ARU concluded that “helping people to access affordable opportunities for creativity could be a major boost to public mental health.”

This aligns with Create’s mission of enable those who are isolated or marginalised to take part in free high quality creative arts experiences. Below, we hear some of their stories.

FINDING MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL RELIEF THROUGH ART

“Being creative has been really great. It’s been great to express our emotions through body movement and dance. Some days when I have got here, I have felt really emotional. I’m literally holding in tears. And at the end, I feel lighter and better because I’ve moved my body and I’ve been able to come away from my responsibilities and roles at home. I’ve learnt that for me personally, body movement is very important. I used to take dance classes and I really used to enjoy it. But everything stopped and I’ve felt very stagnant. So doing something like this is really important. And I feel more motivated when I’m within a group. I just love the way that movement allows you to release lots of energy from your body as well. It just allows you to move and release that stress in a way. It’s been really nice for my mental health. It certainly helps, 100%” – Nimisha, adult carer, Harrow

“I loved being creative. It took me away physically, mentally and emotionally from my caring role. I’m very tied down by my caring, because I’m a 24/7 carer with just an hour and a half of help each day. But creating things takes us away from ourselves. When you’re involved in creating, you can’t think about how much your feet ache or how your brain is in a fuzz. It’s being able to use my brain and body differently and in a stimulating way.” – Bridget, adult carer, Nottingham

“[These workshops have] been really uplifting for my mood. I suffer with a low mood, but doing the artwork gives me moments where I feel like my mind is creating space. I always compare it to a glass jar, and mine’s really full, overflowing and cracked. I’ve got no more space to do anything. But when I come here and do art, it empties some of that jar. And I can use that empty space to do my caring role.” – Anilla, adult carer, Manchester.

“Being creative felt good because sometimes everything is stressful, especially as I have assessments coming up. It’s been nice to be able to do something else besides that. Creativity has really helped with my mental health, especially doing art with other people. It’s helped me take my mind off of everything and focus on something else for a little while.” – Jack, young carer, Uxbridge

BUILDING LONG-TERM MENTAL HEALTH TOOLS THROUGH THE ARTS

“That’s where this music project has been so important to me because it’s brought creativity back into my life. I have an appointment with it. And my main challenge at the moment is [that] I need to think about myself more. This is a good starting point to enabling me, hopefully, to take some of those further steps that I know I need to do.” – Bridget, adult carer, Nottingham

“I call it my ‘me time’. Because I’m given a chance to come and do what I want to do, and just be free and I’m not being judged. And the fact that it’s creative is good because my creativity has just gotten to spark up. I would recommend it to others as well. I even told my doctor about it and she was really happy I had something to help with my mental health and all the things I’ve got going on at the moment. I really loved the ‘yes, and’ [activity], where somebody says something and you continue with ‘yes, and’. That was both therapeutic and creative for me. It’s actually helped me in my personal life. It has given me a positive outlook by saying ‘yes, and’ instead of going negative and spiralling down. It’s been good in that regard.” – Yvonne, older adult, Islington

“Taking part in this project, I learned that art can be quite relaxing and therapeutic and that it can also help with pain. Obviously, I rely on painkillers, but art can calm your body down, which is quite nice. Projects like these can help people in hospital see a different perspective. We can see the beauty in the very mundane things through art.” Blair, young psychiatric hospital patient, Manchester

HOW CREATIVITY HAS IMPROVED BLAIR’S MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

Posted on September 23, 2024 by communications - Stories

HOW CREATIVITY HAS IMPROVED BLAIR’S MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

creative:tandem is our multi-artform project with young people admitted to mental health units due to serious conditions including psychotic, depressive, anxiety and eating disorders, self-harm or suicidal thinking. For five days in August 2024, Create artist Sarah Grant delivered visual art workshops at Galaxy House, an inpatient service in Manchester helping young people with a range of conditions including eating disorders, Pervasive Arousal Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), OCD and Psychosis.

We spoke to Blair (17) about her experience on this project. Blair was admitted to Galaxy House in May 2024.

Blair’s Story

“I have PAWS, which is Pervasive Arousal Withdrawal Syndrome, classified under FND (Functional Neurological Disorder). I have been in Galaxy House for nearly 18 weeks. I had appendicitis last year and then I was unable to walk and paralysed. We thought I was going to get better, so I was discharged. I had carers, all of that. But then my symptoms just regressed. I had a nasogastric tube and they were looking for external rehabilitation places. Galaxy House fitted my needs, it’s a very specialised facility. My symptoms have definitely improved here and I’ve obtained a much better quality of life.”

THE VISUAL ART WORKSHOP

“We’ve been doing various creative tasks for the week. We did some acrylic painting, art using nature as inspiration, experimental watercolours, clay modelling with terracotta clay, and spray painting. We were free to do whatever inspired us. I liked the free reign given to the young people and how it like dispels the conception that art has to be one specific thing.”

“Working as a group was quite fun. I think it showed the group’s dynamics in a very different way. Art can harness what others are feeling, which can be quite satisfying.”

THE joys of creating

“Being creative has made me feel very fulfilled because I can achieve something tangible, which is not linked to something academic. I think it’s good to have a safe space where you can contribute different creative ideas that don’t have to be intellectually judged.

“[When creating] I feel satisfied as it’s relaxing and very enjoyable.”

“It’s been nice that we had a whole week dedicated to different forms of art.”

TAKEAWAYS

“Projects like these can help people in hospital see a different perspective. We can see the beauty in the very mundane things through art. And it differentiates our days. It’s also nice informal environment. We can interact with nurses more casually, because they’re not writing notes on you.”

creative:tandem is funded by The Prudence Trust

Meet Candida, an occupational therapist at aquarius ward

Posted on February 21, 2023 by nikita - Stories

MEET CANDIDA, AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST AT AQUARIUS WARD

On 14 November 2022, Candida Rosier delivered an insightful presentation to Create’s professional artists and staff, sharing her knowledge and experience of working with young patients in mental health wards.

Candida has been an occupational therapist for more than 40 years. She has spent 15 of them working on Aquarius Ward, an inpatient service for young people experiencing a mental health crisis in South West London. Create has been delivering creative arts projects with Aquarius Ward patients since 2021.

We spoke to Candida about why she thinks running creative arts projects with young patients is important. Read the interview or watch the video below.

“I’ve come here today to help [Create] artists feel confident running workshops on a ward like mine because it can be quite a challenge and it can be quite scary.

“I think everybody is a bit taken aback when they go into a mental health ward. If you work there, it’s complete second nature and we can’t really see what anyone’s scared about, but people are doing surprising things and saying surprising things and there’s quite a lot of shouting some days. If you’re not used to that, it is quite scary as you don’t really know what’s going on.

“So, I wanted [the Create team] to feel like they had the skills and were equipped to come and run workshops. The more knowledge you’ve got, the more it helps your confidence.”

“CREATIVITY IS CRUCIAL TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE WARD.”

“Quite a lot of young people on our ward can be tense and very unfree about themselves, so by the time the end of the week comes and they’ve been doing the same thing every day, and they’ve got to know the artist, that allows them to let themselves go a little bit.

“Creativity is crucial to the young people on the ward. It’s really important that they realise they can be creative, that they feel confident enough in trying things out, and that they relearn how to have fun. They can do that individually, and they can do it cooperatively with each other, and that helps interaction. It helps so many of their skills, which they can then transfer into other areas of their life.

“You’re not going to get a kid to do anything enormously complicated very confidently in five afternoon workshops, but sometimes you can sow a seed of that idea and they can discover that actually, they do like this and they can take a photo.

“We’ve seen some amazing results of kids whose confidence has grown. A recent music project we had was amazing. We had a young person who was a real challenge, but she was able to sing and record a song to the music we composed and it was wonderful to hear. It makes you think that even though it was difficult, there was an amazing end result. If you ask the majority of kids on Aquarius Ward what their good qualities and skills are when they come in, they always say nothing. So, sowing that seed is really great.

“working with create has been like a breath of fresh air.”

“My experience of working with Create has been entirely positive. It’s been amazing to have this person coming in with lots of skills. As an occupational therapist, it’s quite difficult to find nice quality equipment and nice materials to use, but [Create] come in and it’s all ready-made. They’ve got all the skills and the interest and it’s much easier for them to motivate the kids because they’re so good at doing what they’re doing. So, it’s been amazing, it’s just like a breath of fresh air.”