“We’re All in the Same Boat” – The Experience of People With Mental Health Conditions and Non-clinical Community Members in Integrated Arts-Based Groups

Abstract

In recent decades there has been a significant increase in community rehabilitation programs for people with mental health conditions. One such nationwide programs is Amitim in Israel whose mission is to foster the psychosocial rehabilitation of people with mental health conditions in the community. Amitim’s flagship program consists of arts-based groups that integrate participants with mental health conditions and non-clinical community members. To better understand the experiences of participants in these arts-based groups, five focus groups were conducted with participants from 15 integrated arts-based groups. In total, 17 people with mental health conditions and 21 non-clinical community members were interviewed for this qualitative study. Three main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: creation and expression through the arts promote well-being, self-disclosure in a safe space encourages a sense of belonging, and “we are all in the same boat.” The participants underscored the role of creation and expression through the arts in facilitating emotional expression, self-discovery, interpersonal communication, and spiritual elevation. The findings suggest that the facilitators should instill a sense of equality by enabling intergroup acquaintances without labeling participants’ mental health status. Integrated arts-based groups should be accompanied by a mental health professional who can contain and work through complex emotional situations when needed. Arts therapists who specialize in both arts and mental health are particularly suitable for this role. Overall, the interviewees reported that participation in the integrated arts-based groups positively impacted their personal recovery processes by providing a corrective experience of equality as well as enhancing a sense of belonging to the community and social relationships. The participants also reported being empowered by the final artistic event that not only enhanced their sense of visibility, competence, and aspirations for future development in personal, interpersonal, and artistic realms, but also helped to combat both self- and public stigma.

The contribution of integrated arts-based groups to people with mental health conditions and community members: Processes and outcomes.

“…It is noteworthy that these quantitative results are corroborated by our qualitative findings (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2021), where people with MHCs indicated that participation in the integrated arts-based groups not only enabled personal creation, emotional expression, and stress relief through the arts in a safe space, but also had a positive impact on their personal recovery processes including increases in self-efficacy, self-esteem, motivation for personal and interpersonal development, empowerment, and sense of belonging to the community. Overall, our results are also consistent with evidence that CSE is associated with adaptive outcomes such as well-being and creative adaptability (Orkibi et al, 2021), mental well-being (Fino & Sun, 2022), and even posttraumatic growth (Orkibi & Ram-Vlasov, 2018).…”

“…This study's significant pre-post intervention differences should be interpreted carefully considering the small sample, the self-reports, and the absence of a comparison group. A third study qualitatively showed the benefits of these arts-based groups, as mentioned above (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2021).…”

“…This is possibly because in the control group, people with MHCs merely participated in arts and leisure activities open to the general public in the community centers. They did not participate in the integrated arts-based groups that were led by a professional group facilitator, which offered a containing, supportive, and nonjudgmental environment that facilitated direct contact with nonclinical community members and open discussions of mental health issues-all of which are factors that, according to our qualitative findings (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2021) and previous research (Martínez-Hidalgo et al, 2018;Schaefer et al, 2021), can be consequential for positive changes in well-being outcomes. In addition to intergroup contact (i.e., between those with and without MHCs), the arts-based groups facilitated peer-to-peer contact (i.e., among those with MHCs), which may have also contributed to better outcomes.…”

“…Importantly, in a qualitative study on creative writing and rehabilitation the authors suggested that when arts-based activities are facilitated by a professional artist, it reinforces the participants’ identity as artists rather than their identity as a person with MHCs, unlike activities that are facilitated by health professionals or disability support workers (King et al, 2013). Finally, in a qualitative study past participants in Amitim ’s integrated arts-based groups reported experiences of self-discovery, emotional expression, spiritual elevation, interpersonal communication, and improvement in their well-being (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2021).…”

“…Note that this quantitative report is a part of a larger mixed-methods study focused on the integrated arts-based groups of the Amitim program. A detailed description of the general characteristics of participants enrolled in Amitim ’s arts-based groups is reported elsewhere (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2020), as well as qualitative data collected from five focus groups to better understand the participants' experiences (Nitzan & Orkibi, 2021).…”