Creative Interventions Research Articles

U.S. nursing home leadership experiences with COVID-19 and its impact on residents and staff: A qualitative analysis.

To explore experiences of U.S. (United States) nursing home leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic in their efforts to address resident loneliness and social isolation and to elicit stories about personal and professional impacts on themselves and staff. Qualitative inquiry via three optional open-ended questions appended to a national self-administered survey of American nursing home leaders was employed. Textual data was analyzed using an iterative reflexive thematic approach. A stratified sample frame defined by facility size (beds: 30-99, 100+) and quality ratings (1, 2-4, 5) was employed. Web survey links and paper surveys were sent to 1,676 nursing home directors of nursing between February and May 2022. Open text responses were collected from 271 nursing homes. Broad themes included: 1) Addressing needs of residents & families; 2) Challenges; and 3) Personal experiences of nursing home leadership/staff. Respondents described trauma to residents, staff, and leadership. Resident loneliness was addressed using existing and newer technologies and innovative indoor and outdoor activities. Residents experienced fear, illness, loss, and sometimes death. Isolation from family and lack of touch were particularly difficult. Regulations were seen as punitive while ignoring emotional needs of residents. Staffing challenges and pressures to do more with less created additional stress. Leadership and staff made significant sacrifices resulting in physical, social, and emotional consequences. Beneficial outcomes included staff bonding, professional growth, and permanent implementation of new interventions. New and creative interventions were successfully implemented to address social isolation and loneliness. Improved Wi-Fi and other nursing home infrastructure upgrades are needed to maintain them. Reimagining often conflicting overlapping federal, state, and local regulations, grounding them in good clinical judgement, and incentivizing performance improvement should be considered. Trauma experienced by staff needs to be addressed to deal with current and future workforce needs.

Betwixt and between creativity and heritage: remaking a traditional festival and creating festivals to remake traditions in a historic neighbourhood in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article endeavours to advance scholarship on the relationship among festivals, cultural heritage, sustainable development, and the connection between cultural heritage and creativity. The article positions festivals as sites to negotiate creativity and traditions and recognises that festivals are constantly evolving and transforming. Through studying three smaller-scale community-initiated festivals in the Taiwanese historic neighbourhood of Twatutia (Dadaocheng), the article demonstrates: (1) how ‘traditions’ can be remade and revitalised to adapt to a changing society through creative intervention and active collaboration with the cultural and creative industries; and (2) how local communities can create festivals as creative means to showcase, revitalise, and remake local traditions. Provided that (1) there is mutual trust and long-term collaboration between cultural and creative practitioners and preservers of cultural heritage and traditional traders and practitioners; and (2) the autonomy of creative practitioners is respected, the article argues that creative interventions, such as festivals, can contribute to revitalising, rejuvenating, and remaking local traditions and support organic and sustainable development of local cultures without rejecting external influences.

Arts and creativity interventions for improving health and wellbeing in older adults: a systematic literature review of economic evaluation studies

BackgroundAs the population ages, older people account for a larger proportion of the health and social care budget. A significant body of evidence suggests that arts and creativity interventions can improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of older adults, however the value and/or cost-effectiveness of such interventions remains unclear.MethodsWe systematically reviewed the economic evidence relating to such interventions, reporting our findings according to PRISMA guidelines. We searched bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Econlit and Web of Science and NHSEED), trial registries and grey literature. No language or temporal restrictions were applied. Two screening rounds were conducted independently by health economists experienced in systematic literature review. Methodological quality was assessed, and key information extracted and tabulated to provide an overview of the published literature. A narrative synthesis without meta-analysis was conducted.ResultsOnly six studies were identified which provided evidence relating to the value or cost-effectiveness of arts and creativity interventions to improve health and wellbeing in older adults. The evidence which was identified was encouraging, with five out of the six studies reporting an acceptable probability of cost-effectiveness or positive return on investment (ranging from £1.20 to over £8 for every £1 of expenditure). However, considerable heterogeneity was observed with respect to study participants, design, and outcomes assessed. Of particular concern were potential biases inherent in social value analyses.ConclusionsDespite many studies reporting positive health and wellbeing benefits of arts and creativity interventions in this population, we found meagre evidence on their value or cost-effectiveness. Such evidence is costly and time-consuming to generate, but essential if innovative non-pharmacological interventions are to be introduced to minimise the burden of illness in this population and ensure efficient use of public funds. The findings from this review suggests that capturing data on the value and/or cost-effectiveness of such interventions should be prioritised; furthermore, research effort should be directed to developing evaluative methods which move beyond the confines of current health technology assessment frameworks, to capture a broader picture of ‘value’ more applicable to arts and creativity interventions and public health interventions more generally.PROSPERO registrationCRD42021267944 (14/07/2021).

Between Taking and Making Place: Exploring the Linkages Between Serres’ Le Parasite and the Research Practice of Creative Intervention

This article explores the linkages between Serres’ Le Parasite and the research practice of creative intervention via the analysis of an experimental film produced for the 2022 Space and Culture Conference on Taking Place and Making Place. The experimental film is intended as a provocation, in that it seeks to exceed the forms of conventional scholarship. In an effort to invent new modes of thought production, documented research materials of local sites are combined with a range of ideas and theories, blurring boundaries between theory, poetry, and practice, the dystopia of the virtualization of everyday life and the figuration of possible realities, glimpsed from a local viewpoint which follows the fluxes of emergences.

P30: Neuro-therapeutic play with Asian older adults: a qualitative analysis.

Neuro-therapeutic intervention joins play for older adults with and without cognitive decline in Asia. During the Covid-19 outbreak, older adults report an increased isolation and increased risk for cognitive decline and medical complications than younger populations. It is therefore reasonable to implement creative nonpharmacological interventions to satisfy older adults psycho-social needs while maintaining their cognitive functioning without being burdened with healthcare costs. In this interventional study, a group of 60 older adults aged 60 years old and older participated in sand tray activity for six weeks. Participants were interviewed for their experiences with six sand tray activities under social distance restrictions in Taiwan. Thematic analysis techniques are applied to examine the interviewing data to identify comment themes across participants. The qualitative results show that social connection is the need of older adults during the pandemic, that neuro-therapeutic play satisfies older adults’ emotional needs, and that sand tray activity offers an opportunity for older adults to exercise their brain. Implications are discussed.

Gender-based violence comes on the scene: Creative Arts Therapies intervention in prison with men who committed or tried to commit feminicide

Gender-based violence is a pervasive phenomenon to be prevented. This study presents the findings of an intermodal psychodrama intervention aimed at counteracting the risk of future violent behaviour. Six prisoners who committed or tried to commit femicide participated in 10 psychodrama sessions in prison. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the sessions’ transcripts and interviews. Four themes were found: (1) participants’ preliminary motivation, (2) positive and critical aspects of the intervention, (3) personal and relational changes, and (4) reflections on gender roles. The project increased participants’ well-being and led them to new reflections on themselves, others and their relationship with women.

Evaluation of a carepartner-integrated telehealth gait rehabilitation program for persons with stroke: study protocol for a feasibility study

BackgroundDespite family carepartners of individuals post-stroke experiencing high levels of strain and reduced quality of life, stroke rehabilitation interventions rarely address carepartner well-being or offer training to support their engagement in therapeutic activities. Our group has developed creative intervention approaches to support families during stroke recovery, thereby improving physical and psychosocial outcomes for both carepartners and stroke survivors. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an adapted, home-based intervention (Carepartner Collaborative Integrative Therapy for Gait-CARE-CITE-Gait) designed to facilitate positive carepartner involvement during home-based training targeting gait and mobility.MethodsThis two-phased design will determine the feasibility of CARE-CITE-Gait, a novel intervention that leverages principles from our previous carepartner-focused upper extremity intervention. During the 4-week CARE-CITE-Gait intervention, carepartners review online video-based modules designed to illustrate strategies for an autonomy-supportive environment during functional mobility task practice, and the study team completes two 2-h home visits for dyad collaborative goal setting. In phase I, content validity, usability, and acceptability of the CARE-CITE-Gait modules will be evaluated by stroke rehabilitation content experts and carepartners. In phase II, feasibility (based on measures of recruitment, retention, intervention adherence, and safety) will be measured. Preliminary effects of the CARE-CITE-Gait will be gathered using a single-group, quasi-experimental design with repeated measures (two baseline visits 1 week apart, posttest, and 1-month follow-up) with 15 carepartner and stroke survivor dyads. Outcome data collectors will be blinded. Outcomes include psychosocial variables (family conflict surrounding stroke recovery, strain, autonomy support, and quality of life) collected from carepartners and measures of functional mobility, gait speed, stepping activity, and health-related quality of life collected from stroke survivors.DiscussionThe findings of the feasibility testing and preliminary data on the effects of CARE-CITE-Gait will provide justification and information to guide a future definitive randomized clinical trial. The knowledge gained from this study will enhance our understanding of and aid the development of rehabilitation approaches that address both carepartner and stroke survivor needs during the stroke recovery process.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT 05257928. Registered 25 February 2022.Trial statusThis trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 05257928) on March 25, 2022. Recruitment of participants was initiated on May 18, 2022.

The role of school-based creative expression interventions in the aftermath of migration: A qualitative exploration of parents' and teachers' perspectives

This study explored supportive relational processes for immigrant children's well-being between peers, teachers, and parents in the development of school-based creative interventions in European multi-ethnic societies. Within the present study, we integrated the perspectives of teachers and parents to broaden the dominant focus on the assessment of individual symptomatology within the existing body of studies of school-based interventions studies. As a part of a larger multi-method study on the implementation of a creative expression program for immigrant children ages 8–12 years in three schools in Belgium, we conducted focus group discussions to learn parents' and teachers' perspectives on the role of school-based creative interventions in children's coping with histories of migration and life in exile. Parents and teachers identified the need for the intervention to foster emotional expression impacting children's self-esteem and social connectedness with peers and to foster emotional connections between parents, teachers, and children. Parents also stressed the importance of the intervention within society as a forum to engage with social conditions, promote cultural belonging, and social integration. Results identified the importance of school-based interventions in terms of individual benefits as well as connectedness and coherence in entire communities, thereby strengthening the development of transcultural research evidence for school-based interventions in multi-ethnic societies.

Thinking Three, Revisited Infants, Coparents, Gender Roles, and Cultural Contexts.

Tracing its beginnings to the mid-1990s, coparenting theory and research, guided greatly by Minuchin's structural family theory, have deepened socialization perspectives in the field of developmental psychology. Coparenting theory has perhaps had its largest impact in the field of infant-family mental health, where empirical investigations of coparenting and family level dynamics have dovetailed with studies of family alliances and triangles and inspired creative interventions to support families of infants and toddlers. In this article, the authors retrace some of the early accounts of coparenting and triangular interactions during infancy, highlighting symmetries with analogue conceptualizations discovered in the field of family therapy. Emphasizing key concepts and lessons divined from the infant-family mental health literature holding value for the practice of family therapy, the article also recognizes the dominant Euro-Western bias that has shaped much of the extant literature to date. A closing section addresses two important areas calling for more concerted attention by infant-family mental health experts and family therapists alike - under-appreciated and misunderstood elements of men's psychology connected to their core self-definition, and cultural distinctions in normal family processes. In both cases, if misread or misunderstood by the helping professional, the recipients of therapeutic services may experience failures of empathy.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Group Music Creativity Intervention for Adults with Varying Cognitive Function

ABSTRACT Maintaining healthy cognitive functioning and delaying cognitive decline in cognitively intact and cognitively impaired adults are major research initiatives for addressing dementia disease burden. Music interventions are promising, non-pharmaceutical treatment options for preserving cognitive function and psychological health in older adults with varying levels of cognitive function. While passive, music interventions have attracted considerable attention in the abnormal cognitive aging literature, active, music interventions such as music creativity are less well-studied. Among 58 older adults with different levels of cognitive function (cognitively healthy to mild cognitive impairment), we examined the feasibility and acceptability of Project CHROMA, a Stage 1 clinical trial developed to assess the effects of a novel, music creativity curriculum on various health outcomes. Music intervention participation (93%), overall study retention (78%), and intervention satisfaction (100%) rates were comparable to other similarly designed clinical trials. Exploratory analyses using mixed-level modeling tested the efficacy of the intervention on cognitive and psychological outcomes. Compared to those in the control condition, participants in the music condition showed some improvements in cognitive functioning and socioemotional well-being. Findings suggest that a 6-week music creativity clinical trial with several multi-modal health assessments can be feasibly implemented within a sample of varying cognitive ability.

Psychosocial needs of post-radiotherapy cancer survivors and their direct caregivers – a systematic review

Radiotherapy is an important modality for cancer treatment. About 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy, and one-third of radiotherapy recipients were identified as having unmet psychosocial needs. The unmet psychosocial needs worsen the patient’s quality of life and treatment effectiveness. This review aims to identify the psychosocial needs of post-radiotherapy cancer survivors and their direct caregivers. Systematic research of Embase, Scopus and PubMed was done and 17 studies were selected for analysis. The results show that patients encounter distress and fear due to treatment immobilization and unfamiliarity with procedures respectively. Information provision is a common need raised by patients and caregivers. Patients and caregivers report relationship problems due to affected sexual functions. To facilitate future studies, solutions to each identified psychosocial need are proposed in the discussion based on the 17 selected papers and other supporting literature. This review proposes art therapy to alleviate psychological distress, and pre-treatment information sessions to reinforce information delivery. Creative interventions such as a sexual rehabilitation program are recommended. Future studies are warranted to examine the interventions and thus improve the patients’ and caregivers’ well-being.

Professional Nurse Coach Supervision: Relationships, Responsibilities, and Requirements.

The evolution of the role of the Professional Nurse Coach (NC) in recent years has been an empowering and innovative model for health and wellness for individuals, groups, communities, and populations. The relationships, requirements, and responsibilities of NC supervision to date, however, have not been fully examined. The aim of NC supervision is to provide feedback on the coaching process, and confidently guide the new NC to utilize creative problem-solving techniques and interventions. Themes emerge in supervision that can help expand competence and skills of coaching. Additionally, knowledge gaps may become apparent that would require further exploration or education. Articles on clinical supervision within the confines of nursing and other related disciplines do not highlight the challenges, responsibilities, or contractual obligations of the NC-Supervisor relationship. Without clear guidelines and identifiable themes within the supervisory experience, there are inconsistent parameters and confusion around supervision. This article will address the need for a consensus of a competency framework for NC clinical supervision and recommend a baseline strategy for guideline development. The article is relevant to the competencies associated with the ANA Standards of Professional Performance required for certification as an NC.

A Creative Writing Intervention for Second Language Acquisition Development in Multilingual Students

The primary goal of this research is to examine how creative writing-based methods impact the development of narrative skill in students who are learning Greek as a second language at the A1-A2 proficiency levels. More specifically, this study aims to evaluate the extent to which the writing abilities of A1-A2 level Second Language Learners (SLL) can progress from basic, structured stories to more complex narratives at higher proficiency levels. In this study, a total of fifty-four A1-A2 level SLL were divided into two groups: the Experimental Group (E.G.) and the Control Group (C.G.). Both groups underwent a pretest and a posttest assessment. An intervention, consisting of six class hours per week over a three-month period, was exclusively administered to the E.G. When designing the creative writing activities, the research considered the A1-A2 level writing criteria and writing competencies outlined in the Common Application Text for European Languages. The results of the study reveal that, following the intervention, there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The C.G. displayed only a marginal improvement across all measurement scales, while the E.G. performance reached the levels of B1-B2 in terms of written narrative skill. These findings confirm previous research indicating that creative writing, as an engaging teaching approach, empowers A1-A2 level SLL to employ specific narrative techniques, thus elevating their narrative writing skill to B1-B2 proficiency levels. As a result, the discussion underscores the importance of enriching teaching practices with effective tools such as creative writing to enhance the narrative skill of multilingual students, ultimately facilitating their acquisition of a second language.

A Review of Creative Play Interventions to Improve Children's Hospital Experience and Wellbeing.

Being in the hospital can be stressful for children and caregivers. Evidence-based play interventions to reduce this stress, such as play therapy or Child Life services, have been introduced in hospitals globally, with growing awareness of potential benefits. To evaluate the impact of nonmedical/illness-specific creative or play-based programs in hospital settings on children's (<18 years) and their caregivers' hospital experiences, wellbeing, and other health outcomes. PubMed, CINAHL, Google Scholar. We conducted a systematic review of original articles published since 2011, screening 2701 de-duplicated articles. We identified 25 eligible articles, representing 1629 children (57% male), 422 caregivers, and 128 health professionals. Included studies most commonly evaluated professional children's entertainers (n = 8 studies), music therapy (n = 4), unstructured play (n = 3), and humanoid/animal robots (n = 3). Most studies evaluated the impact on the child's level of anxiety (n = 14/25), mostly supporting a reduction (n = 13/14 studies). Several studies provided evidence for a reduction in children's pain (n = 4/6), and negative emotional/behavioral outcomes (eg, sadness, anger, irritability; n = 5/6 studies). There was mixed evidence for the impact of the included interventions on physiologic outcomes (eg, systolic pressure, heart frequency; n = 3/5 studies) and fatigue (n = 1/2 studies). Evidence on caregiver outcomes and the impact on health care services was limited. The findings of our review generally supported the value of play-based interventions on children's' wellbeing while in the hospital, particularly reducing anxiety and pain. Further evaluation of their impact on caregivers' outcomes and the health care system is needed.

Creative Interventions

Creative Interventions

Dental Anxiety Assessment through the Drawings of Children and Influence of Art Therapy.

Assessment of dental anxiety in children is difficult because of their immature cognitive and emotional development. Drawings are well well-established emotion assessment tool. These can be used as nonverbal methods of communication for expressing the children's anxiety and emotions. Art therapy utilizes creative therapy interventions to deal with children suffering from emotional problems. The aim of the study is (1) To assess the drawings of children for the presence of dental anxiety. (2) To study the effectiveness of art therapy on dental anxiety in children. One hundred and twenty children within the age group of 6-12 years were part of this study. The pretest assessment of dental anxiety was done using Frankl and Five facial anxiety scales. All the participants received local anesthesia during their first treatment session. At the end of the treatment session, all the participants were asked to draw a picture of their experience. The drawn figures were assessed by a psychologist. The children were allotted randomly into the study group (n = 60) and control group (n = 60). Art therapy was given to 60 children in the study group for three consecutive appointments. The posttest assessment of dental anxiety was done using Frankl and Five facial anxiety scales after completion of the entire dental treatment. The pretest scores revealed very high level of dental anxiety in 33 (55%) children in study group and 34 (56.67%) children in control group. The posttest scores of study group, who received the art therapy, revealed that 24 (40%) children had little anxiety and 32 (53.33%) children had some anxiety. Whereas in the control group, the posttest scores showed 20 (33.33%) children had high anxiety and 39 (65%) children had very high anxiety scores. There was a significant correlation between the objective score of dental anxiety and the subjective scores of CD: H. Drawings can be used as an assessment tool for the detection of dental anxiety and art therapy effectively reduces the anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing dental treatment.

Extracting design knowledge from online product reviews to support design creativity

ABSTRACT E-commerce has made customer-generated product reviews accessible for analysis. Each customer review summarizes the product's unique customer experience and features. In product development processes, it is essential to reach the information content of customer reviews early. Using customer content as data provides designers with comprehensive, cost-effective, and rapid insights into product evaluation, user experience, and even identification of new product features and creative design interventions. Despite all these superior potentials, analyzing unstructured and mass product review data takes time and effort with conventional methods. This study proposes to utilize product reviews as input for developing user experience-based products and to support designers' creativity in the early design phases. Therefore, in this study, the opinions of consumers about a product were subjected to a text mining analysis at different levels, and mood values were determined for each category and sub-product aspect with their justification. In the last part of the study, the essential product improvement areas based on the comment/sentiment score are presented, and the potential of product comments as information content about design creativity is discussed.

Creativity development through questioning activity in second language education

IntroductionCreativity is an important 21st-century skill that also plays an important role in second language use and development. This study examined the effects of creative pedagogy centered on student questioning activities for second language learners’ creativity, language proficiency, and questioning ability.MethodsIn the Japanese second language course, a creative activity intervention involving questioning activities was conducted for 81 university students. The students were taught how to ask higher-order questions, and they performed questioning activities and discussions about their questions after reading articles for eight lectures in 4 weeks.ResultsAfter the intervention, the quantity and quality of questions asked by participants increased and improved in the Questioning ability test. In the Creative thinking test, the three subscales of creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, and originality) improved after the intervention. In the Language proficiency test, there were also significant changes in vocabulary, grammar, and total scores after the intervention compared to before the intervention.DiscussionThe creative pedagogy significantly improved learners’ creativity, second language performance, and questioning ability, with a particularly positive impact on questioning ability, representing innovative thinking skills. The findings of this study not only contribute to future research on the development of creativity in second language instruction and deepen the exploration of the development of questioning ability for innovative thinking skills.

The Impact of Creativity Training on Inter-Group Conflict-Related Emotions

Negative emotions toward outgroup members are primary factors in maintaining and escalating inter-group conflicts. Building on studies showing that highly creative individuals exhibit fewer negative emotions toward outgroup members, we examined whether training creativity by means of divergent thinking tasks would reduce negative emotions toward outgroup members in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Experiment 1 examined the effectiveness of a 2-week creativity training program that entailed executing divergent thinking tasks. The results show that individuals trained to think creatively exhibited fewer negative emotions toward the outgroup compared to the control group. Experiment 2 examined the effects of a short creativity intervention and found that the intensity of negative emotions did not change immediately after carrying out divergent thinking tasks. These findings suggest that extended, but not short, creativity intervention may regulate negative emotions toward outgroup members, indicating that emotional change in the context of conflicts is possible only after repeated creativity training.

Recommended Interventions to Improve Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Uptake among Adolescents: A Review of Quality Improvement Methodologies.

Routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake continues to be suboptimal since its recommendation in 2006 for girls and in 2011 for boys. This paper aims to review published quality improvement (QI) methodologies on interventions to improve HPV vaccine uptake among adolescents. Science Direct and Scopus databases were searched for QI initiatives evaluating the effect of multimodal interventions to improve HPV vaccination rates (initiation and/or completion of series) among adolescents. Studies that included an outcome of interest among adolescents aged 10 to 18 years old were included. Two investigators worked independently to screen for potential articles and a designated investigator extracted data on study characteristics and evaluated the outcomes. A preliminary search yielded a total of 523 articles and 13 were included in the final analysis. Common strategies were provider-specific (i.e., webinar, telementoring, train-the-trainer approach) and patient- and/or parent-specific interventions (i.e., reminder emails, phone calls and text messages, social events), with an emphasis on education and knowledge empowerment. System-level interventions such as policy changes and revised protocols were less commonly prescribed despite being associated with a more significant weight on the overall outcome. Creative, sustainable, and economical multilevel interventions that focus not only on provider training and public education but also incorporate local policies and system enhancements can substantially improve HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents.