Sunday 1 June 2008

Art Therapy at BLPT

Following on from my previous post, I find it confusing that BLPT can be publicising the positive effects of art for service users and carers at the same time as intending to end art therapy within WAMH. In this month's "You Matter" magazine for service users and carers, there is mention of a client who has won a national award for her paintings, a service user group which is producing and selling hand made cards, the positive effects of art projects within two wards, and praise for another group of service users who have produced a book of poetry and art work. The magazine also quotes from a DoH publication:
"Arts can make a significant contribution to improving the health and well being of patients, service users and carers".

So how is it that the same Trust is declaring that there is no evidence that art therapy does any good - when they are themselves providing evidence that it does?

4 comments:

Made by Mandy said...

HI C

That question of producing evidence and then saying there is no evdience has got me fooled.

Are BLPT going into the entertainment business as magicians?

Now you see it, now you don't

Dazed of Dunstable

theMuddledMarketPlace said...

I think it's ..."the effectiveness of this service" ...that they wondered about.

Whereas the quote is just a general matter.

Which all goes to prove that what is currently in place...doesn't work...but they do need something...

Hey, I have an idea!
It can go out to private tender.
Cynical? Moi?
Never!

It'll quite possibly be OK in the end...it's just the hugely unsettling process of thngs being disbanded and then that awful time of uncertainty as new relationships have to be built.

thoughts and hugs as your area faces this...

Caroline said...

sorry, not what yu want to hear i suspect but from the necessarily limited view from here based on what you have written, there is a crucial, and indisputable (I'm afraid) difference betwen 'art therapy' and 'art projects' such as making cards to sell. At therapy done properly is exactly that - it is therapy conducted under the superviosn of an expensive specialist therapist/ psych focussing on internalised emotions, and is usually confidential and personal (aothough carried out in small groups. It is funded through 'medical' money.

art projects usually get sponsorship or funding from the arts council, or the European union, or charities, involve non specialist artists or volunteers and are 'pastime's' for 'service users' being, if anything, an occupational rather than psychological therapy. they therefore cost less, have much more publicity amenable outcomes and make people smile.

art therapy per se is a rarity in most health trusts, and it's value is often questioned (and dare I say it questionable)

Disillusioned said...

If I thought it would be replaced with something else there might be an argument for doing so - but I suspect this is another cost cutting exercise more than anything else.