An exploration into the use of creative activities as part of occupational therapy intervention for people with mental health difficulties.

Creative activities have been used by Occupational Therapists to help with treatment since the beginning of the profession in the early 20 th century. Although in the past creative activities were used in both physical and mental health settings, they are now more widely used in mental health practice. Mental health difficulties can have a significant impact upon the way a person feels, thinks and behaves which can affect their ability to cope with everyday life. Creative activities have the capacity to help people by promoting confidence, raising self-esteem and encouraging socialisation. Thus, participating can make a patient feel good about themselves. Creative activities can be easily adapted to suit a patient's interests and capabilities and can be used within a group or one to one intervention session with the Occupational Therapist. Although some literature exists to support the benefits of creative activities being used as an intervention an overall decline in their use has been seen. This therefore illustrated the need for more up to date high quality research. As a result of these findings a research project has been proposed to look at 8- 10 people's experiences of taking part in a creative activity group in a community mental health setting. People will be interviewed and results will be analysed so that further contributions can be made to the current evidence base. By adding more up to date research it is hoped that more Occupational Therapists will have the confidence to use creative activities as a means of intervention and that benefits will be further explored.bsc_occunpub1746_ethesesunpu