Art for Recovery': Expanding Access for the Underserved
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Cancer is considered to be the most stressful disease and breast cancer the most stressful type of cancer. Support groups are the most common way of addressing the emotional, social, and psychological challenges presented by breast cancer. However, support groups are not available to all women with breast cancerfor example, women in rural communities, women with certain disabilities, and low-income women. The number of women who get breast cancer and the number who survive are both increasing, so it is important to find ways to provide support services to as many women with breast cancer as possible. This project is a study of the 'Art for Recovery' program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. This is a well-established program offering a variety of support services for women with breast cancer (as well as people with other illnesses), all of which involve visual creative expression and therefore do not rely on verbal expression or on talking about things that may be considered taboo. The program includes outreach to underserved parts of the San Francisco area. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The purpose of this study is to: (1) find out how well the 'Art for Recovery' program is meeting the emotional, psychological, and social support needs of women with breast cancer, especially the needs of women from groups that are considered to be underserved; and (2) to find out how to improve the program to meet these needs better. A guiding question will be whether there are successful aspects of 'Art for Recovery' that could be offered to more women with breast cancer by providing them in innovative ways, for example by using videoconferencing to community clinics. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The evaluation part of the study will be done by first gathering information about the emotional, psychological, and social support needs of women with breast, and then studying the 'Art for Recovery' program to find out how well it addresses these needs. The main component of the study will be interviews with people who are or who have been involved with 'Art for Recovery, particularly women with breast cancer from underserved groups. The information that is collected will be compiled and analyzed to find out which parts of the program are working best at meeting the needs of underserved women with breast cancer and which parts could be expanded or improved.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The study is about an innovative form of psychosocial support for women with breast cancer that has not been studied very much. Although there are art programs that serve women with breast cancer in other cities, 'Art for Recovery' is unique in several ways. It has a much longer history than most other hospital art programs, it is expanding every year mainly due to the demand from women with breast cancer (many programs are shrinking because there is no research to show how well they work), and outreach to underserved women is built into the program. If this study shows that 'Art for Recovery' is meeting needs of women with breast cancer that otherwise would not be met, it could be used as a model for innovative programs in other hospitals or community centers.