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Arts in Health Institute

Music, art, dance and drama in health care: what the trials actually show, what is still only promising, and how people get referred.

Music, art, dance and drama, and the health claims made for them.

Contact

There is one address, and it reaches a person rather than a queue:

miriam@artsinhealthinstitute.com

Most messages get a reply within a few working days. Before you write, it is worth knowing which kind of question this is, because a fair proportion of what arrives here has to be turned away, and it is quicker to say so on this page than in a reply a week later.

What can be answered here

You are writing aboutThe answer you can expect
A figure on this site that looks wrongThe best message this site receives. Quote the page and the sentence. If it is wrong it gets corrected and dated; if it is right, you get the source.
A claim’s tier labelAn explanation of why it sits where it does, against the ladder, and a rethink if you have a source that moves it.
How referral or social prescribing works in generalA pointer to the page that covers it. Not what is available where you live, which nobody here can know.
The difference between a registered therapy and a community activityYes. This is the distinction the site is built around.
A topic that is missingGenuinely useful. Gaps get logged and several pages here started as somebody’s question.
Permission to quote or reuse a pageAsk. See the terms for what is already permitted without asking.
A broken link, or a source that has movedPlease do send these. Links to registers and reports rot quickly.

What cannot be answered here, and where it belongs

You are writing aboutWhy not, and where instead
Whether a named therapist or provider is any goodNobody here has met them, and no reviewer on this site will comment on a named individual. Check the relevant register, then ask the practitioner about supervision, insurance and experience in your setting.
Whether your relative should have music therapy, or art therapyThat is a clinical judgement about a person nobody here has assessed. It belongs with their GP, their consultant, or the therapist doing the assessment.
A symptom, a diagnosis, a medication or a care planNot a question for a website. Their clinical team, or your own GP.
Someone in crisis or at risk of self harmPlease stop reading and contact your local emergency number or urgent mental health service. This site cannot act and cannot pass a message on.
A complaint about a therapist’s conductTake it to the body that registers them: the HCPC in the UK, or the relevant register or licensing board where you are. See find a practitioner for the list.
A concern that someone is being harmed or neglectedSee the safeguarding note below.
Adding a service, scheme or practitioner to the siteNothing here is a listing. No page on this site names or recommends an individual provider, and no amount of correspondence will change that.

Safeguarding

This site is not a safeguarding service and has no ability to act on a concern about anybody’s welfare. No email sent here is monitored out of hours, and nothing arriving in that inbox will be escalated to anyone, because there is no one to escalate it to.

If you believe an adult at risk or a child is being harmed or neglected, contact the local authority safeguarding team, the care provider’s own safeguarding lead, the police, or the relevant regulator. Do that instead of writing here, not as well.

Please do not send

This is a longer list than most sites need, because the material this subject generates is unusually sensitive.

  • Artwork, writing or recordings made in a therapy session. That work is clinical material. It belongs to the person who made it and to the therapeutic relationship it was made in, and it should not be circulated to a website by anybody, including a family member.
  • Photographs, audio or video of a person with dementia. This includes the clip you found moving, and it is the request most often ignored. Somebody who lacks capacity cannot consent to being published, and in most circumstances a relative cannot consent on their behalf for that purpose either.
  • Anything identifying a child, including their artwork, their school, their diagnosis or their photograph.
  • A psychiatric diagnosis, a care plan, a medication list, or clinical notes, whether they are yours or someone else’s.
  • A complaint about a named therapist, which cannot be investigated here and should not be sitting in this inbox at all.

Anything arriving in one of these categories is deleted rather than filed, and you will be pointed to whoever can actually act on it.

Postal address

Arts in Health Institute 1111 Broadway Oakland, CA 94607 United States

Post is not the way to reach anyone here quickly. Email is.