Course summary

This innovative and unique MSc in Creative Arts and Mental Health is jointly run by the Centre for Psychiatry and the Department of Drama and offers an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge and research, with a particular emphasis on theatre and performance in the creative arts. It covers the history, theory, and practice of performance in relation to all aspects of mental health promotion and the prevention and treatment of mental illness. The programme is directed at a combination of education professionals, artists, scholars, and mental health practitioners. It offers students the opportunity to learn in detail, from both arts and science perspectives, about how the creative arts can be used to think critically about and engage the public with concepts and experiences of mental health and the mental health system. The course necessarily reflects a critical analysis of the scientific method(s) of mental health research and practice and explores the use of arts-based research, evaluation and dissemination methods.

• Learn about the application of the creative arts to research, practice, education, advocacy and activism in the field of mental health

• Study the ways in which mental health experiences are represented in the arts and in popular culture

• Consider how arts practice can critique and expand both clinical and popular understanding of mental health and the mental health system

• Learn how mental health professionals, arts practitioners and others interested in mental health and wellbeing work together in both clinical and non-clinical environments

• Develop your own area of expertise in the field of the arts and mental health through options of placements, arts practice and research