ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to describe the growth of a regionally-based mental health team providing services to remote Indigenous communities in far north Queensland. CONCLUSIONS: By drawing on their experience, the authors are able to identify factors supporting the development and sustained capacity of integrated mental health teams, working in challenging remote settings.
Subject(s)
Health Services, Indigenous/organization & administration , Mental Health Services/organization & administration , Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/psychology , Patient Care Team/organization & administration , Humans , Program Development , Queensland , Rural Health Services/organization & administrationABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to provide an update on the performative outcomes of the Creative Recovery project, an innovative community based Arts in Health initiative, since the initial launch in Lockhart River 2008, expansion to Aurukun in 2009, and Mornington Island in 2010. RESULTS: With works from those three communities, the exhibition Work In Progress was launched during the Creating Futures Conference 2010. Selections from that exhibition are presented here. CONCLUSIONS: The Arts in Health model is both a culturally appropriate and sustainable model for the meaningful engagement of Indigenous people living in remote communities experiencing mental health problems. These types of projects offer unique opportunities for social enterprise, utilizing creativity as the tool for social inclusion. It has the potential to provide a niche economic opportunity which builds on the notion of recovery as incorporating meaningful livelihoods.
Subject(s)
Art Therapy/methods , Creativity , Health Promotion/methods , Mental Health , Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/psychology , Humans , Rural PopulationABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the background to, implementation of and evaluation challenges associated with an innovative, arts-based, wellbeing and mental health recovery project in a remote Indigenous setting. RESULTS: Creative Recovery is a community-based arts initiative for Indigenous people with mental health problems. It has been rolled out as a pilot project in a remote Cape York community and is aimed at promoting wellbeing and recovery. The theoretical basis for the initiative is modelled on ideas of the role that social capital plays in improving mental health. This involves both the beneficial impact community participation and the social cohesion it creates can have, not only on an individual's mental health, but also on the social and emotional wellbeing of the communities they are part of. Such initiatives have already been adopted as an integral part of mental health promotion in countries such as the UK, and in other Australian states such as Victoria and Western Australia. The following paper will locate Creative Recovery in the current field of mental health promotion theory and Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing, and will discuss some of the evidence for and challenges inherent in adopting such initiatives.
