Mental health and Expressive art have a close link. The positive impact of the art on the mental health and its potential usefulness in catalysing recovery process is not well utilised in the mainstream mental health-related interventions.
Manasrang (Colour of Mind) program has two important objectives:
- To integrate various forms of expressive arts in the group based psychosocial interventions
- Use the various forms of locally prevalent expressive art as a primary strategy in community mental health activities.
Manasrang was developed by renowned Marathi Theatre artist and director Mr. Atul Pethe and Mr. Raju Inamdar along with the Parivartan team. The activities of Manasrang are driven by the use of various forms of expressive arts like songs, drama, paintings, drawings, dance, puppetry and picture storytelling. The content of the group is driven by three principles:
- Learning about illness and ways to cope with it
- Mobilising support to patient and family members
- Exploring options for meaningful reintegration in the community
Over time, patients have shown significant improvements in self-care, daily living and social skills, self-esteem and confidence levels. Several patients have gained employment after years of being at home, many others have sustained their jobs for more than a year and some have managed to leave the house after years of being unable to do so. Families too have noticed improvements in self-care, family relationships and contribution to household chores.
Besides, the Manasrang group has done several stage performances on important days like World Schizophrenia Day and World Mental Health Day. Here, patients and caregivers presented drama, songs and mimicry. This has received wide media coverage and public interest.
Other than its therapeutic role for patients and their role as a support group for patients and caregivers, Manasrang is also useful as a method for effective community engagement to create awareness about mental illnesses and their treatment thus promoting help-seeking as well. The Manasrang method of communication is well received and culturally acceptable. Manasrang methods have also been used in training of mental health frontline workers in enabling them to refine their communication skills.