Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: Art Refuge uses art and art therapy to support the mental health and well-being of people displaced due to conflict, persecution and poverty, both in the UK and internationally. Learning from its frontline programme in northern France has helped to inform the charity’s response to Covid19.
Context: Social media and online communication are often lifelines for people who are displaced. Since March 2020, Art Refuge has extended its use of online platforms.
Approach: Focusing on grounding techniques developed from the principles of Psychological First Aid, alongside the theme of daily rituals, the online work has used trauma-informed approaches to create viable spaces for social engagement alongside physical spaces: both require careful thinking to build safe, adaptive psychosocial structures, appropriate to context.
Outcomes: These online models have limitations but also benefits: sustaining spaces in which individuals can find connection; developing new relationships while encouraging others; reaching people from a wide geographic area and across borders; partnership working which supports sustainability.
Conclusions: As a result of Covid19, Art Refuge has developed new models for social engagement which include integration of both online and face-to-face models. The authors propose that these have relevance in both an emergency context and for wider application.
Implications for research: Technological inequalities and issues of access need research, alongside robust evaluation studies on each model and research into whether these models can be usefully applied to other areas of practice.
Background: Art Refuge uses art and art therapy to support the mental health and well-being of people displaced due to conflict, persecution and poverty, both in the UK and internationally. Learning from its frontline programme in northern France has helped to inform the charity’s response to Covid19.
Context: Social media and online communication are often lifelines for people who are displaced. Since March 2020, Art Refuge has extended its use of online platforms.
Approach: Focusing on grounding techniques developed from the principles of Psychological First Aid, alongside the theme of daily rituals, the online work has used trauma-informed approaches to create viable spaces for social engagement alongside physical spaces: both require careful thinking to build safe, adaptive psychosocial structures, appropriate to context.
Outcomes: These online models have limitations but also benefits: sustaining spaces in which individuals can find connection; developing new relationships while encouraging others; reaching people from a wide geographic area and across borders; partnership working which supports sustainability.
Conclusions: As a result of Covid19, Art Refuge has developed new models for social engagement which include integration of both online and face-to-face models. The authors propose that these have relevance in both an emergency context and for wider application.
Implications for research: Technological inequalities and issues of access need research, alongside robust evaluation studies on each model and research into whether these models can be usefully applied to other areas of practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | DOI: 10.1080/17454832.2020.1845219 |
| Pages (from-to) | 183-191, |
| Journal | International Journal of Art Therapy |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Art therapy; telehealth; displacement; borders; psychological first aid; social engagement; covid19; refugees