8th Annual Conference of the German Scientific Association for Arts Therapies
A qualitative Interview study to determine the needs and requirements of people with psychological stress and experts regarding an art therapy app
2University Medicine Essen, West German Proton Therapy Center Essen, Germany
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Background: Digital interventions in the scope of mental health have become increasingly relevant in the last years. Digital treatment options already exist for psychotherapy in general, yet availability and evidence specifically for digital interventions in art therapy remains scarce, both in Germany and the rest of the world. Advantages, potential as well as needs and demands of target-groups have been widely reported for mindfulness and psychotherapeutic apps. The inclusion of the target population in the development has been identified to foster efficiency, adherence and acceptance.
Objective: This qualitative interview study aims to identify needs, demands and expectations of patients and art therapy professionals regarding an art therapy app intervention. The study focusses on acceptance as well es perceived risks within a user-centered design approach.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with n=6 patients of an inpatient and day clinic psychosomatic unit at a university hospital in Germany. In addition, n=10 art therapy professionals were interviewed as experts. Qualitative content analysis was performed via deductive and inductive coding in adherence to Mayring. Eleven main themes were derived to answer the objective.
Results: The analysis of these themes revealed specific needs and expectations of patients and experts for a digital art therapy intervention. In addition, risks, reservations as well as prerequisites for implementation were identified.
Conclusion: The findings of this study provide valuable insight that has not yet been reported for digital interventions in the context of art therapy. A clear need could be identified for the target population, which also reported high acceptance and had positive expectations towards a digital art therapy intervention. Aftercare emerged as a particularly promising point of application. The results of this study can be used to tailor a future intervention according to patients’ needs. Further, experts reported limited imaginability regarding digital applications of art therapy, underscoring the need for further research.
