The Art of Intervention in Mental Health Services - World Mental Health Day – 10 October 2008
Young adults from Birmingham with complex emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties are set to benefit from an innovative intervention initiative combining art practice and art therapy in an effort to provide a positive and creative experience during a difficult time.
Full Potential Arts has chosen World Mental Health Day (10 October) to launch the four month pilot project, Connect Through Art, in association with the Early Intervention Services of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. The artistic elements and a record of some of the participants’ experiences will feature in a public exhibition on completion.
The participants are young adults aged between 18-30, many of them with artistic talents, who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing the early stages of psychosis. Project participants will be encouraged to develop self-management of risk whilst gaining insight and acceptance of themselves and others. With one in four people experiencing mental health difficulties at any given time, and with 25 of these taking their own lives every week, the project has a bigger aim of preventing more mental health statistics.
Connect Through Art was devised and developed by Deborah Living, who will project manage the scheme for FPA. Deborah, a survivor of the mental health system herself, has more than a decade’s personal experience of various treatments and so understands the difficulties in, and the therapeutic opportunities of, the connection between communication, mental health and art. The project is funded by Arts Council West Midlands, the Health Exchange’s Health and Community Engagement Grants Programme 2007-08 and supported by The Digbeth Trust.
Based on her own experiences, Deborah believes such accessible and appropriate intervention in these early days will prevent many of the artists becoming victims of their own difficulties. She said, “Connect Through Art provides the opportunity for participants to develop the creative tools to move away from destructive forms of self-expression and towards constructive forms of communication.”
Tim Newbold, service manager with the Birmingham Early Intervention Service, said: “The response from our service users has been really enthusiastic. We could have filled our allocation three times over. We are very excited about this Full Potential Arts project. It affords our young adults a safe and interesting environment that they will want to engage with and where they will not be labelled or stigmatised.”
Full Potential Arts’ Chair, Roseanne Crossey, said, “As a service user led organisation we are thrilled to be able to deliver this project with Deborah Living. We read more and more about the benefits of arts in mental health and it is our hope that we not only succeed in helping the participants continue with their personal development, but that the project will also encourage other talented artists with mental health difficulties to approach us with their project ideas and help them contribute to arts in mental health.”