Artistic Creation workshops for patients with anxiety and depression

Abstract

This article relates the experience of the research-creation project 'Expression, social ties and mental health'. First, we offer an outline of the context that motivated the initiative; second, the development of creation and implementation workshops; and third, the findings and reflections once the tests were carried out with patients at the San Ignacio University Hospital in Bogotá. The project is a contribution to energize the relationship between patients and health professionals under the figure of the 'artist mediator-patient-health professional' module, allowing access to information not contemplated by the traditional mechanisms of psychiatry, through conversations. The work with volunteer patients allowed us to understand that a person's support network can also be made up of other types of beings, such as imaginary characters, animals, memories of dead loved ones or places, among other possibilities.