Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing in Chronic Illness Using Art

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue of Healthcare will focus on the use of the arts to promote mental health and wellbeing among people with chronic illnesses. The use of the arts in healthcare is a growing area of research, with epidemiological evidence suggesting that engagement with the arts can have a sustained positive impact across one’s lifespan. Evaluations of arts-based interventions in a variety of settings have highlighted the beneficial impact the arts can have on mental health outcomes, including reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and increasing mental wellbeing. However, the new field of the arts in health research has typically focused on the use of the arts in general or in psychiatric populations, with little research exploring how the arts can address aspects of mental health impacted by living with a chronic physical illness.

This Special Issue seeks papers (both original research and reviews) related to the use of the arts (including visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, digital arts and cultural events) to promote mental health and wellbeing in people living with chronic physical illness.

Dr. Helen Noble
Dr. Claire Carswell
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.