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Published on: January 11, 2020
'Painting a path to wellness': correlations between participating in a creative activity group and improved measured
L Caddy1, F Crawford, A C Page
1School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University Professor, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia. lizcaddy@aapt.net.au
Abstract:
Responding to a call for quantitative outcome evidence about the therapeutic relationship between creative activity and mental health, this study examined the mental health outcomes of inpatients participating in art- and craft-based creative therapies at a private psychiatric hospital over a 5-year period. The creative activity group sample (n= 403) improved from admission to discharge across four different psychometric measures with moderate to strong mean effect sizes. Reductions from pre- to post-treatment in both self-reported and clinician-rated symptoms are clearly demonstrated for the creative activity group participant sample. Research findings establish that participation in creative activity has potential benefits for people experiencing mental health problems.
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