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This paper aims to describe service user experiences of an art psychotherapy group which drew on occupational therapy perspectives to help adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties move forward in their recovery.

A case study approach incorporating outcome data was used. The data gathered comprised attendance, facilitators’ clinical notes, photographs of participant artworks, the Psychological Outcome Profiles questionnaire (PSYCHLOPS: www.psychlops.org), a post-therapy feedback form, discussion at post-therapy individual review sessions and participants’ achievements post-group.

All but one participant scored the group as “very helpful” or “helpful” and all felt that the group had helped them with the personal aims they had identified. The PSYCHLOPS questionnaire yielded a large average effect size, indicating positive change in terms of problems, functioning and well-being. Participants identified several ways in which the group was helpful, and their artwork and reflections indicate how they used the art making in the group to pursue their recovery goals. The service user experiences and outcomes suggest that this group was effective in facilitating recovery for these adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties.

This group was innovative in integrating approaches from the different professional specialisms and the findings encourage further investigation into this way of working.

Mental health disparities exist among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics (BAME) populations. This paper aims to provide an overview of mental health services designed for the BAME population in the UK, both established BAME communities and refugee/asylum-seekers.

A range of electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies conducted within the past decade in the UK. Using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology, data were extracted, analysed and summarised.

A total of 13 papers were identified, mostly non-randomised community-based. Studies were very heterogeneous in terms of their sample and service provided. After the initial appraisal, the authors presented a narrative synthesis. Overall, all studies reported positive mental health outcomes and beneficial effects.

Because of the time limitations and quality of the papers, the authors only included peer-reviewed journal papers.

Mental health services provided for BAME people, both established and refugee/asylum-seekers are feasible and improve engagement with the services and mental health outcomes. Initiatives are required to facilitate the integration of these targeted services within mental health and community services for BAME in the UK.

This scoping review is a snapshot of the mental health services designed for BAME people in the UK, either established or refugee/asylum-seekers in the past 10 years and adds to the evidence-based knowledge from these studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical potential of applying Jungian/analytical psychology concepts to a contemporary therapeutic community (TC) within the national health service.

A literature review concerning a Jungian understanding of group psychotherapy and TCs was undertaken. A summary and discussion of a detailed written account of a previous Jungian TC was then conducted. A comparison between a modern-day TC and Jungian approaches was then conducted with an ending discussion on the feasibility of incorporating Jungian ideas into modern work.

While Jung is thought to have a wholly negative view of groups and group psychotherapy, this was not found in the case. Furthermore, post-Jungian authors have attempted to use ideas from analytical psychology in their group work. While there are some aspects that could be implemented with relative ease in the modern TC, a complete shift into this different way of working would be a challenge and its current evidence base would not support this.

To the best of author’s knowledge, there are no other academic papers that have considered this subject.

The relationship between learning and mental health, as well as a growing body of literature, underscores the need for art therapy in educational settings. This is particularly true for learners with special needs. Shostak et al. (1985) affirmed that “for children with special needs, art therapy in a school setting can offer opportunities to work through obstacles that impede educational success” (p. 19). School art therapy facilitates improved social interaction, increased learning behaviors, appropriate affective development, and increased empathy and personal well-being. It can be adapted to meet the specific developmental needs of individual students and to parallel students’ developmental, learning, and behavioral objectives. This chapter introduces the reader to the history and basic constructs of art therapy as a psychoeducational therapeutic intervention in schools. Model programs are identified, as well as the role of the art therapist within the context of K-12 education settings. Additionally, examples of special populations who benefit from art therapy intervention within school systems are provided, along with considerations for school-wide art therapy.

This Research Watch reviews two recent papers reporting on work that seemed to increase social inclusion for people with mental health diagnoses.

The first paper is about a social inclusion project spanning three European countries and using a novel approach to research. Mental health professionals and service users worked together and visited projects in the other countries, sharing their learning about social inclusion. The second paper is about a 12-session art course in a community setting. Participants completed questionnaires before and after, and some gave feedback in a focus group. Their responses were compared with people not on the course.

The cross-Europe project seemed to create social inclusion by its very nature and activities. Staff and service users created together their understanding of social inclusion. Inclusion encompassed work and education, but also went beyond these to having safe places to work and learn together. Participants of the art course reported increased well-being and social inclusion, and some felt more able to go on to voluntary work afterwards. People who were on the waiting list did not report these improvements, but those of them who went onto the next art course later reported similar improvements.

The cross-Europe project used a novel collaborative research method and spanned three countries. The study of the art course was the first to capture improved social inclusion in people with a range of mental health needs following attendance of a therapeutic art course rather than ‘art psychotherapy’ compared with a comparison group not attending the course.

The randomised controlled trial, though highly valued, has been criticised as not helping to understand how results occur: Real-life complexity is not captured, i.e. what actually happens at trial sites (rather than what was intended). The purpose of this paper is to summarise and comment on two 2014 research papers addressing this challenge of randomised trials – concerning new therapeutic approaches for people diagnosed with psychotic disorders.

One paper is about what staff thought when adopting a new recovery-focused approach in two mental health services as part of a randomised trial. The other is the plan for a small pilot trial of a new treatment for psychosis called positive psychotherapy. It describes how the researchers planned to study the detail of what happens in their small trial, to help them improve the design of a future, larger trial.

The first paper recommends avoiding services undergoing too many changes and ensuring managers will visibly support the project. When training staff in a new approach, trainers should recognise staff's existing knowledge and skills and use practical methods like role-play. In the second paper, the plan for the small positive psychotherapy trial seems detailed enough to explain what really happens, except in one area: looking at how clinicians actually select service users for the trial.

These papers concern pioneering therapeutic approaches in psychosis. With randomised trials highly influential, both these papers recognise their potential problems, and seem to represent good attempts to understand what really happens.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what resources recent refugees to the USA tap into and how collaborative expressive movements were experienced with regard to coping and resourcing, and to derive a theoretical model that would inform the use of dance/movement therapy and other holistic treatment modalities with refugees.

A total of 13 refugees overall participated in parts of this study. Ten of these refugees completed movement sessions and semi-structured in-person interviews. Constructivist grounded theory methods and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

The findings suggest that refugees draw on a number of resources. The collaborative movement experiences seemed to have both a settling and mobilizing effect with the most important phenomenon of connection to the self or to another person. A grounded theory model, developed based on the findings, shows a dynamic interaction between the encountered categories.

The findings are preliminary and not transferrable because of limited size and potential researcher bias.

The findings contribute to an understanding of the resettlement and acculturation phase of refugees with potential implications and suggestions for current clinical practices and health services.

This study was original in its focus on understanding the role and the potential of body and expressive movement among refugees who have experienced trauma. Adherence to transformative paradigm principles invited participants to become co-researchers.

This discussion paper reviews and critiques literature related to the evolution of the medical humanities as an academic discipline and its contribution to healthcare provision. We argue that despite considerable advances in the field of medical humanities, needs have been identified for a more inclusive, outward‐facing and applied discipline. These needs can be met in the form of what we have called the health humanities, which both embrace interdisciplinarity and engage with the contributions of those marginalised from the medical humanities ‐ for example, allied health professionals, nurses, patients and carers. It is argued that there is a need for new thinking to develop the discipline of health humanities, to develop, provide and share research, expertise, training and education.