Applied Briefs
Exploring Art Therapy’s Broader Benefits
By Merrill Meadow | Illustrations by Bratislav Milenkovic
Many people might define art therapy simply as “making art as a way to feel better.” Yet it has much deeper and multifaceted benefits. “It enables a person to turn inward reflection into outward creative expression of thoughts, emotions or struggles, non-verbally,” says art therapy researcher Rachel Brandoff, PhD.
Much of Dr. Brandoff’s clinical work and research focuses on individuals dealing with prolonged grief disorder and physical or emotional trauma. But she also explores how art therapy can enhance well-being for communities and across fields — ranging from medicine, nursing and public health to architecture and interior design.
One such initiative, a unique course she co-created called Health and the Art Experience, guides students from multiple disciplines to develop, implement and analyze projects where art is designed to address specific social, emotional or educational issues. For example, one project studied whether an economically depressed town’s self-regard could change when it invited artists to adorn abandoned homes with light. Another assessed bus shelter art installations as a tool for building awareness about local resurgence in HIV/AIDS.
“I believe deeply that efforts like these can have wide-ranging benefits for individuals and communities,” Dr. Brandoff explains. “In fact, I’m working with colleagues to bring art therapy principles to the design of outpatient healthcare facilities — such as Jefferson’s new Honickman Center — as another way of providing care for our patients, their families and our surrounding communities.”
Designing for Unique Patient Needs
By Marilyn Perkins | Illustrations by Bratislav Milenkovic
Developing assistive technologies for people with disabilities is a challenge. “If something is not properly designed, our clients can’t use it,” says occupational therapist Kim Mollo, OTD.
To develop better designs, Dr. Mollo, along with industrial designers Eric Schneider and Tod Corlett, invited students studying occupational therapy or industrial design to develop devices for those with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). FOP is a rare, genetic condition that causes mobility loss as muscles and tendons turn to bone.
For their clinical capstone course, occupational therapy students interviewed people with FOP about their needs and desired improvements to their current assistive devices. Then, industrial design students developed, prototyped and tested devices to meet those needs.
The student groups designed four devices, the most developed of which is an improved reacher or grabber. Traditional reachers have a pistol grip that requires considerable hand strength and is impossible to adjust. With the students’ new design, FOP patients with limited arm mobility can use a tunable electromechanical gripper with a telescoping and pivoting handle to reach objects. The dial-controlled claw is accurate enough to “pick up a potato chip without crushing it, and strong enough to lift a full water bottle,” says Schneider. “This innovative design has the potential to help all people who are dealing with mobility and strength issues, not just those with FOP.”