A Critical Review of the Effectiveness of the Therapeutic Use of Artistic Activity

Within the body of research on arts and healthcare, there have been attempts at measuring and valuing the effects of the arts on clinical outcomes although often this is context specific (e.g. for specific amenities or initiatives/programmes in specific locations) and lacking a policy purpose. Despite this, the role and value of the arts in healthcare continues to be recognised and carry weight in policy terms. Although there is also evidence of silos of knowledge, and critics point out that there is a split between individualised notions of maintaining health and a more socially determined appreciation of the impacts of health inequalities and social interactions on everyone. Both arts and health operate across both sides of this divide but rarely are seen in this dual context.
We propose to conduct a multi-dimensional critical review of the effectiveness of art therapy for the patient, published in academic journal articles and articles written for a healthcare audience (e.g. practitioner, healthcare manager/provider or policy), that has the stated goal of providing evidence of therapeutic benefit from an artistic activity through measurement of a health state. We will follow the processes used within public health for conducting a critical review of literature on a body of mixed research-study designs. This will involve setting out pre-determined criteria for literature to be included in the study; double reading all the papers and classifying the literature by study design, health state, stated therapeutic mechanism; expert assessment of possible therapeutic mechanism; and finally providing a narrative summary of the findings based on the quality of evidence and the volume of available evidence. The approach we will adopt for reviewing the literature will enable the current state of knowledge about the value of arts and culture in clinical and therapeutic contexts to be consolidated in relation to the overall quality of evidence. By adopting a recognised public health process to review and synthesise a large body of low-quality evidence we are using the current body of research to best advantage rather than simply criticising the quality.
This will provide a holistic and, up to date, picture of the state of knowledge in the area of arts and therapeutic and clinical interventions, which is robust and transparent. In addition we will provide new ways of classifying the techniques which move beyond the simple classifications based on the form of the media (eg, music based or fibre art based therapies).

This section not required under the terms and conditions of the call. Please see attached case for support