Arts Psychotherapies Reconnecting People with Support in their Community
“ask once, get help fast” is the stated aim of the Mental Health Strategy (2017-2027) for how health and care teams can respond to needs of people with mental illness in community and primary care settings.
“That [approach] will necessitate models that allow access to information about what people can do to look after themselves; signposting and support to access facilities in the community; and information about who is available to provide support so they can make informed decisions about what is best for them.”
In Arts Psychotherapies we have responded by exploring Arts-based Psycho-Education Groups, psychologically informed educational arts groups in community settings as a way of helping service users quickly gain access and support in their recovery. Each group is aimed at helping service users gain a reasonable understanding of how a mental health condition may affect their thinking and everyday behaviours, and connecting them with arts groups and voluntary sector provision in their communities to enable relational self-care and recovery.
The arts being experiential in nature are particularly helpful in moving the learning from head based intellectual learning, into deeper body and felt learning. The groups can be co-created with people with lived experience; peer workers with personal experience of mental health needs and how best to self manage them. Groups are provided alongside arts-based self-care resources and signposting, some of which can already be found on this website in our Arts and Self Care section, developed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our Current Work
Our arts based psycho-education approach is part of the stepped care pathway that feeds into our resource in Community Mental Health Teams across Edinburgh and East Lothian often taking a Mentalization approach to working with people experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). We also provide community based treatment for people accessing support for Eating Disorders as part of the Cullen Centre provision at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
Our Newsletters
These are are the newsletters for the Arts Psychotherapies Community Service
