Arts-Based Interventions for Professionals in Caring Roles During and After Crisis: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Crisis events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can have a devastating effect on communities and the care professionals within them. Over recent years, arts-based interventions have helped in a wide range of crisis situations, being recommended to support the workforce during and after complex crisis but there has been no systematic review of the role of arts-based crisis interventions and whether there are cogent themes regarding practice elements and outcomes. We, therefore, conducted a systematic review to (i) define the arts-based change process used during and after crisis events, and (ii) explore the perceptions of intermediate and long-term mental health benefits of arts-based interventions for professionals in caring roles. Our search yielded six studies (all qualitative). All data were thematically aggregated and meta-synthesized, revealing seven practice elements (a safe place, focusing on strengths and protective factors, developing psychosocial competencies to support peers, emotional expression and processing, identifying and naming the impact of the crisis, using an integrative creative approach, and cultural and organizational sensitivity) applied across all six studies, as well as a range of intermediate and long-term benefits shared common features (adapting, growing, and recovering; using the community as a healing resource; reducing or preventing symptoms of stress or trauma reactions, psychophysiological homeostasis). The ways in which these studies were designed independently from one another and yet used the same practice elements in their crisis interventions indicates that there is comparability about how and why the arts-based practice elements are being used and to what effect. Our findings provide a sound basis and meaningful parameters for future research incorporating quantitative and qualitative approaches to firmly establish the effectiveness of art-based interventions, and how arts can support cultural sensitivity, acceptability and indicated outcomes, particularly those relating to stress and trauma during or following a crisis.

Coping With COVID-19: Mindfulness-Based Approaches for Mitigating Mental Health Crisis

“…In what follows we provide a theoretical perspective on why mindfulness-based approaches might be well-suited for responding to the current mental health challenges and managing the short-as well as long-term impact on mental health of the pandemic itself and measures to mitigate it. It should be noted that by "suitability" we do not imply "superiority" to other alternative or complimentary approaches that might also be suitable in the context of COVID-19 pandemic (18,19). We use the term "approaches" (which is broader than "interventions") to discuss the suitability of mindfulness and its skills that could be trained by many different means, including in the context of mindfulness-based interventions, using online apps/mp3s, joining online drop-in sessions led by experienced mindfulness instructors/teachers, etc.…”

Behind the creative canvas: An innovative trauma‐informed art‐based educational approach using an immersive learning pedagogy

“…Our approach is novel by combining the advantages of exploring lived experiences of trauma through arts and technology, which aligns with calls for reformation in nursing education, including innovative instructional strategies such as virtual alternatives that are emerging in this sector (Caputi, 2017;Murray, 2013). Furthermore, our findings contribute to addressing a knowledge gap in the area of creative pedagogical interventions in nursing education (Obara et al, 2021) in spite of their potential to enhance the understanding of subjective experiences of mental distress and recovery in practice (Havsteen-Franklin et al, 2020).…”

Government crisis communication innovation and its psychological intervention coupling: Based on an analysis of China’s provincial COVID-19 outbreak updates

“…Qin et al (2020) introduced the institutional settings, the management systems, treatment methods, information communication systems, and other interventions in the United States, Israel, and other developed countries to deal with psychological crises of public health emergencies. Havsteen-Franklin et al (2020) conducted a systematic review to establish the effectiveness of art-based interventions.…”