Influence of art therapy on quality of life in mental patients

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reveal significance of art therapy as a means of mental harmonization in solving communication problems for people with mental disorders, in improving their life quality with experiences of creative self-expression on the basis of the results of the research applying SF-36 survey (life quality evaluation questionnaire). The aim of the research was to examine and evaluate life quality variations for mental patients who had had art therapy applied in their hospital treatment. The sample of the research included 212 in-patients with mental illnesses at mental institutions of Kaunas where occupational and art therapy courses are being held. Demographic and main data on anamnesis of mental illness were collected. The fact that the environment of mental patients stimulating their social and cultural life, and the role of art therapy applied in the treatment had never been investigated in Lithuanian before served as the main reason for this kind of research. The average number of sessions for in-patients amounted to 11.05 ± 0.29. The women and men in the research demonstrated average motivation and it was not influenced by diagnosis. The change in functional indicators (physical function, limitation of activity due to emotional state, mental health, exuberance / vitality, general perception of health, health variation) statistically significantly differed in the researched and monitored groups. The received data indicated that art therapy should be included into the program of strategy implementation. Key words: