A arte como terapia

: perspetiva dos utentes

Abstract

The aging of the population and the existence of effective treatments for physical illnesses reveal the need for methods to promote elders’ wellbeing. Literature has recently shown that activities that use art has benefits for the well-being of this population. This study aims to characterize the experiences of elderly people who participate in artistic activities and assess the impact on their well-being. Through a semi-structured interview, data were collected through the reports of three institutionalized elderly people. The qualitative analysis of the data was carried out according to the principles postulated by the Thematic Analysis and using the Nvivo 11 software. Arts participation had an impact on their well-being; however, it depends on their expectations and motivations regarding them. The facilitators for their involvement are relate to aspects of the activity and to the people that are enabling it, and the difficulties are related to the functioning of the residence, physical health issues, and lack of free time. As the literature on the phenomenon is scarce, this study proved to be relevant by verifying the importance of providing artistic activities in institutions and the supplying of potentially useful data to promote the involvement of institutionalized elderly in arts participation.

Date of Award	11 Jul 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Alexandra Carneiro (Supervisor) & Elisa Veiga (Co-Supervisor)