Aims and Background 2016

ZAMBIA THERAPEUTIC ART ZTA SC045462 

OUR AIM
Is to improve care for Mental Health Service users in Zambia

WHAT WE DO
 Develop and deliver practice based training in the therapeutic use of art to health and social care staff in Zambia. Conduct research on this topic Produce relevant training materials. Work to ensure its ongoing sustainability and monitor and evaluate the continuing practice.

Lesley Hill and Joanna Pearce, UK Art Therapists have developed and delivered a short practice based training for Mental Health professionals and trainees in the Therapeutic use of Art in Zambia over four years since 2011. Enthusiasm for this training based on its demonstrated potential for enhanced patient care has led to a request by key stakeholders in Zambian Mental Health that it be included in the pre-service curricula of Mental |Health Professionals.

ZTA was constituted as a SCIO in order to further the work in February 2015

MENTAL HEALTH IN ZAMBIA
 Mental health services in Zambia are recognised as significantly under resourced. There is little or no specialist provision at community level with services centralised to hospital facilities. Units are understaffed and the treatment options are necessarily limited and almost entirely pharmacological. The situation is unlikely to change in the near future: Drafting of new Mental Health legislation is under way but even after the enactment of any legislation, the systems to implement reforms and broaden mental health provision will remain hampered by resource issues. Issues around the rights of patients and stigma, both in the general community and among health professionals, are well documented.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ‘THERAPEUTIC ART’ TRAINING
The purpose of this training programme is to share the core knowledge and skills of using art therapeutically – to build on existing skills of mental health professionals.
1. Chipata General Hospital, Eastern Province, Zambia 2011/12/13 Lesley Hill delivers training via a 5 day workshop to 30 multidisciplinary staff from mental health and social care, works on the psychiatric wards using art. Lesley Hill and Joanna Pearce evaluate this training one year on, and building on this create and pilot a ‘practice based brief training’ for nurse students on placement.

Outcomes of the training programme as identified by participants
• Enhances communication - giving the patient a voice
 • Enables students to have a sense of the patient as a person with a history and value in their communities
• Provides the patient an opportunity for creativity and expression, increasing confidence and enhancing the sense of self
• Provides a distraction from symptoms, reducing stress
• Improves attitudes in students towards patients
• Assists diagnosis and treatment planning
• Assists well-being and recovery
• Reduces stigma, Increasing compassion, Improving care

2. University Teaching Hospital (UTH) Psychiatry School, Chainama College and Psychiatric Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia 2014/15 
These hospitals are the core training institutions for mental health professionals and are linked to the University of Zambia.
Training delivered to Mental Health Nurses, Trainee Psychiatrists, MA Neuro-Psychology Students and other Mental Health professionals Evaluations -In 2014 the most significant changes were identified as
• Experiencing the enhanced therapeutic relationship and understanding the positive implications of this for their understanding of their patients and their capacity to communicate their stories and feelings.
• Experiencing the power of art making in this context to improve thinking, enhance mood and access memory leading to better communication.
• Recognising the implications for improved treatment planning and management as well as rehabilitation and recovery.

 2015 Initial analysis most significant changes seen in
• the breaking down of barriers and the establishing of trust
• The enabling of hidden stories to emerge
• Communication at a non-verbal level

2016 UTH, Chainama and the Ministry of Health are requesting that the training be provided as part of all pre-service mental Health training. In order to do this there needs to work done on ensuring the support systems are in place within Zambia to maintain the training and the practice. We need to develop and roll out Training for Trainers (TOT) while continuing to support the training and supervision of practice for as long as it is needed.
We need to build our body of UK trainers.

 ZTA Trustees .
 Lesley Hill lesley@zambiatherapeuticart.org
Joanna Pearce joanna@zambiatherapeuticart.org .      Sept 2016