Lifeline, frontline, online: adapting art therapy for social engagement across borders

ABSTRACT Background: Art Refuge uses art and art therapy to support the mental health and well-being of people displaced due to conflict, persecution and poverty, both in the UK and internationally. Learning from its frontline programme in northern France has helped to inform the charity’s response to Covid19. Context: Social media and online communication are often lifelines for people who are displaced. Since March 2020, Art Refuge has extended its use of online platforms. Approach: Focusing on grounding techniques developed from the principles of Psychological First Aid, alongside the theme of daily rituals, the online work has used trauma-informed approaches to create viable spaces for social engagement alongside physical spaces: both require careful thinking to build safe, adaptive psychosocial structures, appropriate to context. Outcomes: These online models have limitations but also benefits: sustaining spaces in which individuals can find connection; developing new relationships while encouraging others; reaching people from a wide geographic area and across borders; partnership working which supports sustainability. Conclusions: As a result of Covid19, Art Refuge has developed new models for social engagement which include integration of both online and face-to-face models. The authors propose that these have relevance in both an emergency context and for wider application. Implications for research: Technological inequalities and issues of access need research, alongside robust evaluation studies on each model and research into whether these models can be usefully applied to other areas of practice. Plain-language summary Art Refuge uses art and art therapy to support the mental health and well-being of people displaced due to conflict, persecution and poverty, both in the UK and internationally. Our work in northern France since 2015 has included direct face-to-face models and using social media to engage people, delivered by a team of experienced art therapists and visual artists. The use of social media and online communication are often lifelines for staying in touch with family, friends and communities, alongside access to information and support, and Art Refuge has responded by being active online. Since Covid19, the charity has begun to see online work as having creative potential for social engagement, alongside working with people face-to-face. Both need careful thought as to how to build structures which are adaptive and appropriate to context, safe and accessible. This article focuses on how to create specific online models for social engagement, and the thinking and ethics behind these. This includes using grounding techniques developed from the principles of Psychological First Aid, alongside the theme of daily rituals. The work online has opened up possibilities: reaching people from different geographic places and across country borders; and working with individuals within other organisations which enables skills sharing so that the work can be continued when the team is not there. Adaptations to art therapy practice and traditional materials are necessary, as are the right devices and connectivity. In conclusion, Art Refuge has found that there are imaginative and engaging ways of working online, particularly when integrated with face-to-face delivery. Technological inequalities and issues of access need research, alongside robust evaluation studies on each model and research into whether these models can be usefully applied to other areas of practice.