Creating open access to credentialed Art Therapists benefits everyone, most of all those in need of our care
WHY INCREASE
CONSUMER ACCESS
TO PROFESSIONAL
ART THERAPY SERVICES
#1: TO PROVIDE HIGHLY-EFFECTIVE TREATMENT TO SYMPTOMATIC, VULNERABLE, DISENFRANCHISED CONSUMERS & COMMUNITIES
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When healthcare consumers have access to Art Therapy provided by credentialed Art Therapists, they are afforded treatment they cannot obtain in any other way.
Imagine the world without an X-ray or an MRI machine, a cardiovascular surgeon, or a med-surg nurse. When consumers have access to trained healthcare professionals and interventions, simply, they heal.
Art Therapy, provided by credentialed Art Therapists, is recognized as a highly-effective intervention with virtually every DSM-5 diagnosis and all-age clinical populations. Because there are some things one just can't talk about and get much relief, marginalized and symptomatic consumers do require Art Therapy services and interventions. And Art Therapists are trained to deliver patient-centered/group-centered care without traumatizing consumers.
Client artwork is a sensitive diagnostic tool that allows Art Therapists to make knowledgeable differential diagnoses that guide the course of treatment, in independent practice or for/with the consumer's healthcare team.
The art space facilitates expression, containment, exploration, processing, and outcome practicing in the moment based upon the client's particular needs. Each session, and over time, the artwork charts the client's/group's symptom relief, progress, and self-reliance.
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#2: BECAUSE ACCESS, PARITY
& PROTECTION ARE GUARANTEED:
For nearly 15 years, healthcare parity laws have safeguarded consumer access to qualified, effective treatment and "protection," reforming States' foremost consumer access
and safety commitments.
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Clarion Champions can work to advance parity and access guarantees involving Art Therapists so consumers have a choice to access best-practice interventions to recover and heal.
Additionally, communities have a way to address the cost and impact of mental health conditions that are not so responsive to non-Art Therapy interventions.
For example, for one original ACE, sexual abuse, the unmitigated lifetime cost to each victim in preventable healthcare and productivity losses in my state is $210,000. Art Therapy is a best practice for recognizing victimization and treating the aftermath. And, because this crime is 95% preventable when children receive body safety education, Art Therapists may also impart important psychoeducation with individuals and groups in developmentally-sensitive ways.
Consumers addressing the original (and modernized ACEs: poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, incarceration, etc.) can readily do so through Art Therapy and strengthen protective factors right through the art.
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How can your daily work best advance the understanding of Art Therapy and availability of professional Art Therapists for those we so effectively treat?
WHY ADVOCATE
FOR MORE CREDENTIALED
ART THERAPISTS & OUR
RIGHT TO WORK AS TRAINED
#1:
SO THAT CONSUMERS WHO NEED ART THERAPY SERVICES HAVE ACCESS TO TRAINED, APPROPRIATE CARE
When we advocate for more credentialed Art Therapist jobs, consumers in need of our care can get that care.
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#2:
ART THERAPISTS HAVE A RIGHT TO WORK COMMENSURATE WITH TRAINING, EXPERIENCE AND LABOR STANDARDS
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When I attended graduate school, the program director warned us that 5 years post-graduation, 30% of graduates were not working as Art Therapists because of the unavailability of Art Therapy jobs.
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The professional standards for Art Therapists have evolved over time, but this is by no means "a new profession." In the 1920s, one hundred years ago, 'The Mother of Art Therapy,' Margaret Naumberg, founded The Walden School of New York City's "dynamic art therapy" program. In the 1960's, Dr. Myra Levick established the first credentialed graduate art therapy program at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital in Philadelphia, absorbed by Drexel University in 2002. Today, many states offer location-based and online Art Therapy graduate programs.
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Every profession earns its tiger stripes.
Once a profession establishes minimum training standards (1969), and once those standards are implemented by credentialing (1993), regulatory, and/or licensing bodies, workers have a right to work commensurate with those qualified standards.
Art Therapists and Champions of the Art Therapy profession can advocate for equality and job protection by convincing policymakers and systems to apply the same practice standards as other distinct healthcare professions enjoy.
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As an analogy, a few hundred years ago, a good-intentioned You could rush onto the battlefield to save the life of a combat wounded person. Once training, credentialing, and regulatory standards evolved for physicians -- and the profession grew -- only qualified professionals may provide this care. In the real estate industry, I can sell my house, but I can't sell your house. If a manicurist needs a healthcare license, should credentialed Art Therapists, who are independent, expert trauma and general practice 'soul' clinicians be licensed to do that work?
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When the standards are overlooked or not fully implemented, are we saying trained Art Therapists don't get to work as trained? That they spent a lot of money to under-earn? Are we effecting a policy, that others, in our stead (despite respective Codes of Ethics, or without requisite -- sometimes any -- training and experience), get to work a professional Art Therapist's job? Does any such policy or practice stand to extinguish the availability of distinct, credentialed workers?
Are funders aware if novice enthusiasts present as 'stakeholders' at negotiating tables? If our services are presented as something other than "art therapy services" -- or enthusiasts coin a non-DOL O*NET job title to receive funding, does that mitigate the inequity for unsuspecting consumers and credentialed Art Therapists? Can we help employers and grant makers to simply hire Credentialed Art Therapists in all settings where Art Therapy services are available?
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Every profession with standards has grappled with these issues, but, luckily, much of the work is done. The way forward is specified in the existing standards. It also exists in the promise of what could be and what should be fair standards.