The leadership team have been developing Arts for the Blues since 2015, beginning with a study (thematic synthesis) of 78 papers on client and therapist-reported helpful factors and outcome studies (Omylinska-Thurston et al, 2020) which was conducted alongside the devising of Dancing
the Blues, a creative performance exploring the research outcomes which toured in the UK and overseas (Thurston et al, 2022).
The resulting model has been piloted in-person with the NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) / Greater Manchester Mental Health trust (GMMH)) and in the community (e.g. with Cult Survivors) and explored via a further creative performance funded by Arts Council England (Together Un/ Tethered, 2023). Recently the team has been delivering Arts for the Blues with doctors in the Liverpool Royal Hospital as part of a staff well-being initiative and with service users in the community asset Liverpool Lighthouse.
During the Spring of 2020, the team delivered an online version of the Arts for the Blues therapy with MIND in Tameside, Oldham and Glossop that was funded by an NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. The team delivered this using a number of creative materials adapted for online use.
A short film featuring the participants in the MIND project and members of the research and delivery team was funded by the UK Council for Psychotherapy and shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 2021 as part of the Healing Arts New York series of events organised by the World Health Organisation.
In December 2021, we obtained a £180k grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) UK Research and Innovation scheme ‘Scale up health inequality prevention and intervention strategies’. Throughout 2022, we organised stakeholder and training events, attended by over 300 people, and received a 6-month extension for the first half of 2023. This work generated significant interest in implementing the model in local services, and this is being developed currently with 1 Point (Bolton) and 6 Degrees (Salford) – a Community Benefit Society and Social Enterprise.
This work fed directly into our successful follow-on bid to the AHRC’s new commercialisation fund to focus on developing our training materials as a Continuing Professional Development package.
Please see our website for more information about our research and projects including short films, links to publications and much more: https://artsfortheblues.com