Creative Recovery: art for mental health's sake.
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.
Dyer
Geraldine
G
Remote Area Mental Health Service, Queensland Health, Cairns, QLD, Australia. Geraldine_Dyer@health.qld.gov.au
Hunter
Ernest
E
D001154:Art; D001155:Art Therapy; D001315:Australia; D006293:Health Promotion; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D011793:Queensland; D012424:Rural Population; D012931:Social Environment