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Intellect is excited to announce that the Journal of Applied Arts & Health 9.3 is now available! For more information about the issue, click here >> https://bit.ly/2PDn31x

Contents

Editorial
Authors: Ross W. Prior 

What artists value when providing workshops for clinical students in a regional training setting: A qualitative study
Authors: Paul W. Bennett And Claire Hooker 

This study investigates artists’ perspectives in participating as non-traditional (not medically trained) teachers in a clinical training programme. We conducted semi-structured one-to-one interviews with artists who provided art-based workshops to undergraduate clinical students within the ENRICH programme, a unique clinical training programme in regional Australia. We identified five interconnected conceptual themes. Artists’ constructed value in terms of an ethic of reciprocal respect for developing professional identity − their own and of the students. This was constructed in a concept of reciprocal contribution to, and validating support from, local community. Artists’ perspectives should not be regarded as extrinsic to evaluations of clinical training programmes. Artists valued participation that went beyond the usual features of developing student capacities for empathy and insight into patient experiences. We suggest that incorporating artists into programme design from the beginning may provide more opportunities to inclusively develop dimensions of value for all participants.

Psychotherapeutic processes in recovery from military and pre-military trauma in veterans: The effects of theatre as a mental health treatment
Authors: Alisha Ali And Stephan Wolfert And Ingrid Lam And Patricia Fahmy And Amna Chaudhry 

Despite advances in the treatment of PTSD and related problems in military veterans, these problems persist and often become debilitating for veterans and devastating for their families. It is thus necessary for health researchers to examine alternatives to mainstream psychiatric approaches for veterans, including arts-based approaches that can demonstrate psychological healing. In this article, we outline some of the psychotherapeutic benefits of the DE-CRUIT programme. This programme integrates the use of theatre with empirically proven elements of cognitive processing therapy, narrative therapy and breathing-based relaxation techniques to treat the effects of both military and non-military trauma in veterans. We describe these benefits through the illustrative case of a veteran who experienced recurrent trauma in childhood and in his military service. We outline recommendations for the expansion of research on arts-based treatments for veterans across mental health settings and community settings.

Singing for health: Do members of a generic singing for health group experience similar effects on health and well-being as those in condition-specific groups?
Authors: Sonia Price And Laura Whitfield 

Throughout time, and within differing cultures, music has been understood to have a beneficial impact on health. Group singing, in particular, may have specific benefits for health compared to alternative forms of music making and listening, and there exists a growing body of research examining the impact of singing on health. This mixed-methods study explored the benefits to health and well-being reported by people attending a generic singing for health group. A comparison of findings was made against existing data on the benefits reported by people attending condition-specific groups. Results indicated a similarity in reported benefits and a preference for a generic group, which may have implications for the future commissioning of singing for health groups.

Learners’ perceptions of daily singing in a school community severely affected by earthquakes: Links to subjective well-being
Authors: Daphne Rickson And Diana Reynolds And Robert Legg 

This article describes learners’ perceptions of daily singing in a school community severely affected by earthquakes, and considers whether and how their experiences might contribute towards well-being. The findings are drawn from Action Research led by a core team of two university researchers and the deputy principal of the school. Learners’ perceptions of singing were linked to indicators of well-being drawn from three models of well-being that were developed with children in mind. Our findings suggest that daily group singing in the classroom has the potential to be particularly helpful in increasing positivity; enhancing relationships; supporting engagement and achievement-related outcomes; and is often energizing. The resources that singing afforded, in an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment, appeared to support learners in managing the significant challenges that they were facing, and in turn in preparing them to engage with academic tasks.

Creative practice with clay: A mutual route to recovery?
Authors: Elaine Argyle And Gary Winship 

This article summarizes the findings of a project called ‘Clay Transformations’ and was part of the Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery Programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Using a mixed methods approach, the project aimed to assess the extent to which involvement in clay workshops promoted the well-being of a group of 42 participants, including mental health service users, artists and practitioners. A particular focus in this respect was placed on the incidence of ‘mutual recovery’ which extends the concept of recovery beyond the individual to incorporate the wider group and its context. It was subsequently found that workshop involvement helped to promote, not only the well-being and mutual recovery of participants, it also enhanced the supportive capacities and social capital of the settings in which these activities took place, both within the workshops and beyond.

Personal experiences of vicarious trauma and resilience within child-welfare research: An arts-based reflection
Authors: Rebecca Fairchild 

The emotional impacts of being a researcher within the field of child welfare are often unrecognized or underreported, despite extensive discussions of vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience within the therapy literature. This article provides an arts-based reflection on my experience of undertaking doctoral research that explored children’s resources in the context of homelessness and family violence. Songwriting was used as a reflexive method throughout my research to explore my intense emotions, feelings of helplessness, sense of responsibility and desire to changes the ways in which children are viewed, understood and responded to within their family and the service system. Four songs are shared throughout the reflexive discussion as a way of describing the research journey and exploring the ways in which the arts-based process provided a new perspective on the research. Implications for researchers in similar fields are explored.

Evaluation and creative placemaking: Using a critical realist model to explore the complexity
Authors: Wendy Madsen 

In the complex reality of community-based arts and health, it is rare for a direct causal link to be established between any particular project and health and well-being outcomes. Based on a realist retrospective evaluation of a small number of creative placemaking projects, this article presents an integrative model to help conceptualize creative placemaking evaluation according to context, mechanisms and tangible and intangible outcomes and impacts. These include proximal and distal outcomes, some of which may be related to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. The implications of this model for practitioners and researchers include being able to accommodate the range of stakeholders typically involved in creative placemaking projects and to expand the evaluation focus to account for context and mechanisms and outcomes and impacts. The model provides a useful theoretical framework for both practice and research.

Reviews
Authors: Shuai Zhang And Xiaoyan Xu And Elcin Bicer And Carrie Herbert And Krystal Demaine And Amy Morrison 

• Digital Bodies: Creativity and Technology in the Arts and Humanities, Susan Broadhurst And Sara Price (eds) (2017)
• Acting, Spectating and the Unconscious: The Psychoanalytic Perspective on Unconscious Processes of Identification in the Theatre, Maria Turri (2016)
• Nourish: Cambodia’s 1st Creative Arts Therapy and Wellbeing Conference, Phnom Penh, 16–18 January 2018
• The Indigenous Roots of Expressive Arts Therapy: Report on the 12th Biannual International Expressive Arts Therapy (IEATA ) Conference, Winnipeg, 4–8 OCTOBER 2017