Exploring the role and impact of visual art groups with multiple stakeholders in recovery-oriented mental health services

This arts-based study explored the role and impact of visual art in supporting collaborative working between service users and staff in a recovery-oriented mental health service in Ireland. A total of two service users and five staff members took part in three visual art focus groups led by a qualified art therapist. Afterwards, service user and staff experiences of focus group participation was investigated through individual semi-structured interviews that were analyzed using Thematic Content Analysis. Three original artworks were created in three focus groups, each of which represented how stakeholders wished their recovery-oriented service to develop in future. Analysis of interviews describing experiences of working with fellow mental health stakeholders in the focus groups revealed five common themes including: ‘Group art-marking engenders collaboration’, ‘The physicality of being in the art-making space evokes sensory experience’, ‘Group art-making can offer a sense of liberation’, ‘Group art-making raises questions about self-revelation’ and ‘Group art-making enables an atmosphere of equitity’. Findings suggest that when facilitated by an art therapist, group visual art making can offer stakeholders a creative, liberating and equitable environment that can foster the concept of co-production that is foundational to effective recovery-oriented working in mental health.