This study focuses on how semi-structured art dialogues can be used to communicate with older patients with impaired mental health. The study was conducted on a geropsychiatric ward at a university hospital in Norway. To communicate with the patients via works of art, health professionals used semi-structured art dialogues; data were collected by qualitative methods. The findings are based on verbatim quotations regarding the health professionals' experiences of their communication with the patients. Two main categories were identified: the physical domain and the caring domain. Dialogues about figurative as well as nonfigurative art forms were found to stimulate and evoke memories; for some patients, these dialogues were an essential step in creating well-being as well as more-being.

Using cross-disciplinary perspectives from artistic research, aesthetic theory, and mental health care, this article discusses qualities in sensuous surroundings in mental health facilities. The background for the article is an increased awareness in aesthetic research concerning sensuous surroundings and their connection to health and well-being. However, this aesthetic awareness is only reflected to a small extent in research on mental health care surroundings. A further development of these perspectives is suggested in this article by introducing the concept of 'life form' from the art theorist Nicolas Bourriaud and the concepts of 'presentation' and 'perception' in theatrical communication from theatre researcher Willmar Sauter. These theories are discussed and exemplified on the basis of data from two mental health care wards: one from a psychogeriatric ward and the other from a polyclinic for eating disorders. Some essential qualities identified in the examples is that aesthetic environment and activity can be seen as formative to the inner state, and that different forms of sensuous activation and interaction could help patients escape communicative inhibition.