Saturday 20th March 2004.

Working with the arts changes perceptions, improves self esteem and communication. This conference looked at these themes, their implications for mental health, education and ways for developing effective, innovative, responsive services and projects, from very different perspectives.

Speakers:
Alan Bleakley has been engaged with counselling and Clinical Psychology for many years in the Southwest. His recent work with the Peninsula Medical School has directly engaged doctors with artists, in an attempt to evoke changes in their perceptions. Can the arts make better doctors?
Terry Rigby is Senior Health Promotion advisor to Stockport Primary Care Trust. He has managed and developed the Stockport Arts on Prescription Service, a groundbreaking approach to promoting social inclusion and positive mental health through the arts. How can arts courses promote mental health?

Val Huet is co-founder of the Art Therapy Practice Research Network, former chair and now Executive Officer for the British Association of Art Therapists, (BAAT), and was for many years a trainer of Art Therapists. In its fortieth anniversary year how does the accumulated experience and evidence of the BAAT, reflect, support, and challenge the role of the arts in their diverse psychological contexts?

There were also less formal discussions and contributions, including a video presentation made by and with a learning disabled man about his life, and the importance of art and music therapy to him, and exhibitions of art work by service users and an art therapist.