Bringing creative psychotherapies to primary NHS Mental Health Services in the UK: A feasibility study on patient and staff experiences of arts for the blues workshops delivered at Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services

Karkou, Vicky; Omylinska‐Thurston, Joanna; Parsons, Ailsa; Thurston, Scott; Dubrow Marshall, Linda; Nair, Kerry; Starkey, Jennifer; Haslam, Shelly

Abstract

There have been several arguments for the need to generate evidence-based creative
forms of psychological interventions in Improving Access to Psychological Services
(IAPT), the main primary mental health provider in hospitals in England, UK. In this
feasibility study, we sought to identify helpful and unhelpful factors of a new creative
group psychotherapy, titled Arts for the Blues. We also wanted to find out whether
the research tools used were acceptable and sensitive. We therefore engaged a group
of seven patients attending an IAPT service in the North West of England, and a group
of six staff working in the same service, to attend one creative workshop each, followed by a focus group. The two focus groups were transcribed and analysed using
thematic analysis. We also collected pre- and post-measures of depression (PHQ-9)
and anxiety (GAD-7), measures commonly used in IAPT services, plus measures of
well-being (WHO-5), the PANAS, and goal-setting, which were considered for acceptability and sensitivity. We received largely positive responses from service users
and staff in the use of creative methods in psychotherapy. Although the measures
used had limitations due to the short duration of one-off creative workshops, we
found that they were sensitive enough, easy to complete and, thus, were acceptable.
We concluded that Arts for the Blues is a promising intervention in IAPT, especially
since it is shaped by service users and staff working in these services. Further work is
needed to establish the effectiveness of this new intervention.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 3, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Deposit Date: Jun 9, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 9, 2022
• Journal: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research
• Print ISSN: 1473-3145
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-1405
• Publisher: Wiley
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12544
• Publisher URL: https://doi-org.salford.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/capr.12544
• Related Public URLs: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/journal/17461405
• Additional Information: Funders : Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group; Projects : University of Salford; Grant Number: Edge Hill University