Arts & Health institutions | Interdisciplinary collaboration

In 2019, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) signed a collaboration agreement to carry out different actions aimed at exploring the potential of art as a tool for patients and families to enjoy its therapeutic and emotional benefits. This pioneering initiative is part of a transversal program recently approved by the Institut Català de la Salut that seeks to advance in the use of the therapeutic value of the different artistic and cultural disciplines. The joint creation of actions that combine perspectives and methodologies of the arts with health practice can lead to new therapeutic options available to health professionals. As for the National Museum, the project is part of its strategy and the work it develops to guide visitors, transforming the facility into an inclusive space to reach broader sectors of society. This collaboration agreement will begin with a project aimed at studying new art therapies in health, in the field of psychology. The initiative will start with women who have a post-traumatic stress disorder, of diverse cultural origin (immigrants or refugees) and who suffer from situations of social vulnerability. The psychological treatment will combine new didactic strategies from the Museu Nacional and the principles of therapeutic intervention for emotional support in situations of fragility in women established by the team of the Vall d'Hebron Psychiatry Service. The patients will receive a psychological treatment divided into two groups: one of them will do it entirely in the hospital and the other will go to the MNAC to check whether the fact of being treated in a non-health environment, such as a museum, and applying to the treatment sessions the advantages of art, gives them more satisfaction and improves their quality of life, as well as reduces symptoms derived from post-traumatic stress. The objective of this project is to obtain more scientific evidence of the benefits of art in health and that they can be offered publicly to the people we serve in the future.