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JAPNA Article - Women Supporting Women: The Use of Art with Anxious/Depressed Urban, Impoverished, Ethnically Diverse, Women - Jul-Aug 2022 (28:4)

Depression and anxiety are mental health issues that disproportionately affect urban, ethnically diverse, impoverished women. Urban areas pose numerous challenges to mental health including loneliness, violence, crime, homelessness, noise, traffic accidents, drug abuse, and insufficient mental health services (Okkels et al., 2018). Relative to ethnicity, the March 3-15, 2021, CDC Household Pulse Survey reported that symptoms of anxiety or depression, over the past seven days, were reported by 39.6% of Hispanic adults, 38.2% Black adults, and 35.9% of White adults.  Relative to gender, in this same period, 40.5% of women and 33.1% of men reported symptoms of anxiety or depression (CDC, 2021). Poverty also affects mental health status. African Americans and Hispanics living below the poverty level are two times more likely to report psychological distress as compared to same ethnicity peers over twice the poverty level (United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 2019a, 2019b). The intersection of urban living, ethnicity, poverty, and gender paints a sobering picture of vulnerability. A lack of culturally sensitive, efficacious, cost-effective, preventative intervention strategies compounds this overrepresentation. Little of the existing literature has focused attention on the use of art interventions in ethnically diverse groups, in urban settings, with impoverished persons, and with those who lack consistent access to mental health care. The lack of preventative mental health care is particularly acute with these groups that are struggling with an array of social determinants of health and the impact of health inequity. This gap in the literature must be addressed given the potentially beneficial outcomes of an art intervention, its demonstrated feasibility with community dwelling adults, and the suggestion that an art intervention may constitute cost effective health care. It is, however, imperative to determine if an art project is a culturally sensitive and appropriate intervention strategy for Black, Latina, and White women. Health professionals cannot simply assume this to be the case.  Nurses must create an evidence base that provides quality health care for all. This article will describe an evidence-based art intervention that nurses can integrate into their practice to produce positive clinical outcomes in this vulnerable population. 

Authors:  Mary Molewyk Doornbos, PhD, RN; Gail Landheer Zandee, MSN, RN; Anna Greidanus, MFA, Barbara Timmermans, PhD, RN; Katherine Miller, PhD, RN; Morgan Quist Sooy, BSN, RN, CDCES; Emily Heitsch, BSN, RN; Erica Hammond, BSN, RN; Christa Houskamp, BSN, RN; Anna VanWolde, BSN, RN

Disclosures: The authors and planners have no conflict of interest to disclose. Off-label medication use will not be discussed. 

Target Audience: RN, APRN

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this article, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe how art can be used for therapeutic purposes with urban, impoverished, ethnically diverse women struggling with anxiety/depression. 
   
2. Identify specific outcomes from a book making project with urban, impoverished, ethnically diverse women struggling with anxiety/depression. 

Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Ethnic Diversity, Urban, Mental Health Issues, Poverty, Art, Women

Nursing Continuing Professional Development:
1.0 contact hours.  * In order to receive contact hours, you must: read the entire article, complete an evaluation, honor statement, and earn a passing score on the post test before the expiration date. You will have 5 tries to correctly answer the questions on the posttest and a score of 80% is required to pass. Once you have passed and completed the evaluation and honor statement, your nursing continuing professional development certificate will be generated online and available for immediate printing. Credit cannot be earned unless all components of the program are completed.  

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

The contact hours for this session expire: August 31, 2024.

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