For the Winter Issue of BAAT’s semi-annual newsletter InSight, I was privileged to interview Jordan Potash, Associate Professor at George Washington University and Editor-in-Chief of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. In this article, he shares his views on the relationship between art therapy and social democracy.

https://baat.org/publications/insight/winter-2022-23/jordan-potash-art-therapy-and-social-democracy/

St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford

We’re getting ready for our presentation on the outcomes of our Special Interest Research Group exploring the potential of the creative therapies to address self-harm in young people.

On 17th October, Dr Vlad Kolodin and I will be at the University of Oxford for the Big Emerging Minds Summitt. Here, we’ll be presenting the outcomes of our special interest research group on the potential of creative therapies to address self-harm in young people. Our amazing young researchers have also created short films on their experiences and the outcomes which we will be sharing during and after the conference. We are really looking forward to this event! ~ Julia

The Arts, Health and Wellbeing,  is a recent report by the Cultural Learning Alliance and Place2B addressing youth mental health and the impact of the arts. The short report is certainly worth the read, but a few key points are highlighted below:

Mental health:

• Young people are twice as likely to report feeling depressed than their 1980 counterparts
• Youth in the UK rank a worrying 14th out of 15 countries for well-being
• The annual cost of metal ill health is between £11,030 and £59,130 per child

Prevention and the arts:

• Participating in creative or cultural activities leads to a 38% increase in reported good health, in some reports this increase is as high as 60%.
• Activities that can enhance young people’s well-being include: visiting museums and cultural spaces, visual arts theatre, dance, music-making, drama
• https://culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Arts-Health-and-Wellbeing-Briefing.pdf

This just in from the London Art and Health Form’s news letter. www.laf.org.uk

International wellbeing comparison