Reframing art therapy to meet psychosocial and financial needs in homelessness

摘要

Psychosocial and financial factors contribute to homelessness. This study investigated the benefit of addressing financial as well as psychosocial needs in art therapy for people experiencing homelessness. Clients at a community resource center participated in an open studio addressing primarily psychosocial needs such as increased coping skills, and an artists' cooperative also meeting financial needs through art sales. Participation in the open studio was correlated with life achievement, but artists also in the cooperative attained higher life achievement on average. Interestingly, each visit to the open studio was correlated with a greater increase in life achievement for non-cooperative members. This suggests that the open studio and cooperative may have served different but overlapping groups. Case vignettes illustrate how different programs can work together to best serve people experiencing homelessness. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.