The Use of a Ward-Based Art Group to Assess the Occupational Participation of Adult Acute Mental Health Clients

摘要

Groups are regarded as an effective treatment method in acute psychiatry (Yalom 1985) because, according to Stein and Tallant (1988), the potential for therapeutic change can be created by interrelationships and personal interactions. Task-based groups encourage positive social-emotional communication (Lloyd and Maas 1997), and art groups provide psychotic clients with a way of conveying the confusion and loss of control that they may be unable to express verbally (Willson 1996). However, although Finlay (1997) acknowledged that creative crafts could be used as a means of assessment and an outcome measure, the use of an art group as an assessment tool has not been fully explored in the literature. Furthermore, evidence on the priorities in mental health research highlights the need for the exploration of ward-based ' group work on acute admission wards (Fowler Davis and Bannigan 2000).. This opinion piece explores the use of a ward-based art group with the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool (MOHOST) to assess the motivation, pattern of occupation and communication, and motor and process skills of acute mental health clients.