Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab
Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab
Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab
Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab
Summary
In the United States, over 1 million critical care healthcare professionals treat of our most seriously ill patients. As a result of their stressful work environment, these healthcare professionals often experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and burnout syndrome. More than ever, providers are looking for tools to help them draw on their resilience and cope with work's stressors.
Creative Arts Therapy uses a variety of media to engage with peer groups, enhance the connection to work, and cultivate positive coping skills. Our Creative Arts Therapy program combines visual, musical, writing, and physical expression to help providers identify, explore, and transform psychological difficulties.
Inspiring collaboration
We are a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, doctors, artists, and therapists seeking to harness the power of creative arts to promote the psychological health of healthcare professionals.
Together, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children's Hospital Colorado, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and the National Endowment for the Arts are building capacity, engaging with the community, and conducting research that explores the psychological benefits of creative arts.
What’s at stake?
A healthy, productive workforce is an indispensable asset to our healthcare system. Yet caring for the nation’s sickest patients is no small task. In recent years, researchers have noticed an alarming trend in the rise of burnout and psychological distress of healthcare professionals. We have only recently started to uncover the true costs of the increasingly high demands in the healthcare professions. Psychological stress and Burnout Syndrome have been associated with quality of care, diminished patient satisfaction, and staff turnover.
Supporting healthcare professionals
The work of doctors, nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals will always be challenging. But where there are challenges, there are great rewards. That is why CORAL is focusing on strategies that seek to end the stigma of mental health issues and enhance providers’ ability to adapt to their work environment and reconnect with the purpose of their work.
Healing through the arts
Our Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) community is committed to enhancing healthcare professional well-being and alleviating psychological stress in the workplace and beyond. Through research, exhibitions, and community engagement, CORAL strives to harness the creativity within our members to build their identity, and establish a sense of community.
The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this material and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award#: 1855492-38-C-19).