Mater Young Adults Health Centre Arts in Health Project Report

The aims of the project were to implement a new arts in health program within a young adults health centre and to evaluate the potential benefits to participants’ wellbeing and psychosocial functioning over and above their treatment as usual, which was individual medical and allied health appointments. The study had a 2 x 2 design, with two conditions: arts groups versus treatment as usual control (TAU) and two time points: pre- and post-program or 6 weeks later (for the TAU). Participantswere 38 patients of the Young Adults Health Centre recruited to the study, 22 enrolled in an arts group and 16 TAU controls recruited from various clinic waiting rooms. Their average age was 21 years (SD = 3 years), and 74% were female. Results indicate that participation in an arts group did benefit participants’ quality of life over and above treatment as usual, in particular in the domains of independent living, relationships, and coping. It appears that the main psychosocial mechanism by which these quality of life improvements occurred was through social connectedness. There is evidence from this study that participants in the arts group programs moved from identifying strongly with their health condition to identifying with their arts based group, a new positive social identity.