Emma Millard

Across the arts therapies modalities there is an obvious difference in the art form being used, therefore, patients’ expectations, past experiences/memories of the art forms, values and preferences may play a considerable role in their engagement and the success of the therapy. An increased understanding of this could support a more collaborative, patient-led approach in mental health care.
In this presentation I will discuss my mixed-methods PhD project relating to different aspects of patient preferences in the arts therapies. After finding important consequences of offering mental health patients their preferred psychosocial intervention (11), the project has explored which patient characteristics are associated with their arts modality preferences, such as gender or symptom severity. I investigated ways in which we can support patients to make informed decisions about their participation in the arts therapies, using leaflets, videos or taster sessions, as well as patients’ experiences of making a choice. The findings can help us to understand what might be important to patients in mental health settings when making decisions about their treatment, and how we can be led by their values and preferences.