Karleen Gwinner, Marie Knox and Sue Hacking
Arts participation fosters social inclusion in a way that other social and recovery programmes do not. The professional role of an artist is an appealing and socially valid role…
Abstract
Arts participation fosters social inclusion in a way that other social and recovery programmes do not. The professional role of an artist is an appealing and socially valid role in the community. For many people with a mental illness, arts‐based programmes become a catalyst to resume and/or pursue their art practice more seriously. The focus of this paper is to uncover the complex boundaries that exist for artists who have mental health needs in contemporary culture, and to review these artists' perceptions of their opportunities to create a place for their creative expression to emerge in its own right, and not on the basis of their illness. We also comment on the specific issue of public perception of the ‘outsider artist’ and refer in parts to the apparent question of how such art is perceived and treated. This paper refers specifically to the experiences of eight visual artists with mental illnesses living in Queensland, Australia, who contributed to an exhibition titled Artist Citizen as part of a participatory action research programme. The topics of discussion by the eight artists explore familiar themes to mental health: stigma, exclusion and the integration of identity within limited membership groups. This paper details the expressed concerns of the artists around the value and connection of their creative output. It should be relevant and of interest to mental health service personnel for insight into integration and recovery for people with mental health needs into mainstream social and cultural environments.
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Supporting community participation and social inclusion is a key goal of modernised day services but there is a lack of instruments to measure these outcomes. This paper discusses…
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Supporting community participation and social inclusion is a key goal of modernised day services but there is a lack of instruments to measure these outcomes. This paper discusses issues around the measurement of social inclusion, presents a pilot study and introduces the Inclusion Web, a strategy to record changes in social networks and environment while supporting the concept of a shared perspective of social inclusion. Two aspects of social and community participation are quantified and tallied over eight life domains: people (personal relationships) and places (institutions that matter to the individual).
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Jenny Secker, Helen Spandler, Sue Hacking, Lyn Kent and Jo Shenton
Empowerment has been described as the ‘holy grail’ of health promotion. This article describes an evaluation of arts participation for people with mental health needs that both…
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Empowerment has been described as the ‘holy grail’ of health promotion. This article describes an evaluation of arts participation for people with mental health needs that both measured empowerment outcomes and explored the processes by which positive outcomes were achieved, through six qualitative case studies. For the outcomes study, 62 arts and mental health project participants returned a questionnaire, including a measure of empowerment, soon after joining their project and again six months later. The follow‐up questionnaire asked participants to rate the impact of their arts involvement on the issues addressed in the measure. Six diverse arts and mental health projects took part in the case studies. Interviews with project participants explored what they saw as the benefits of arts involvement and how these came about. Results from the outcomes study showed significant improvements in empowerment and were suggestive of a strong causal link with arts participation. Analysis of the case study interviews revealed five processes through which benefits relating to empowerment were brought about. We argue that psychological empowerment is in itself important for people with mental health needs. In addition, our case studies indicate that some arts and mental health projects do empower participants at a social as well as individual level.
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Helen Spandler, Jenny Secker, Sue Hacking and Jo Shenton
Helen Spandler and colleagues report on the first phase of a project to map arts and mental health projects in England and evaluate their benefits in terms of participants' mental…
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Helen Spandler and colleagues report on the first phase of a project to map arts and mental health projects in England and evaluate their benefits in terms of participants' mental health and how well they promote social inclusion, both in promoting peer friendships and networks and in supporting the development of links with the wider community.
This index covers all issues between February 2005 (Volume 9, Issue 1) and November 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 4). Numbers in bold refer to yolume, numbers in brackets refer to issue…
Abstract
This index covers all issues between February 2005 (Volume 9, Issue 1) and November 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 4). Numbers in bold refer to yolume, numbers in brackets refer to issue, with subsequent numbers to pages.
Using the Internet as a means of registering discontent with politicians, policies and groups is a growing phenomenon. There are various ways of manifesting protest on the…
Abstract
Using the Internet as a means of registering discontent with politicians, policies and groups is a growing phenomenon. There are various ways of manifesting protest on the Internet, including building protest sites, cyber‐squatting, defacing Web sites and organising denial of service attacks. Some of these methods are extremely effective, being cheap to use and requiring limited technical ability. Others err on the wrong side of the law and involve full‐scale hacking. Overall, hacktivism can be a productive part of the political process.