Although it has gotten little attention, the 2024 NYS legislature passed a bill that would allow hospitals, nursing homes rehabs, and day treatment programs to hire and be reimbursed for the work of dedicated creative arts therapists. We use music, art, drama, poetry, and movement to promote healing for individuals, groups, families, children and couples, and those who are differently abled, or have physical and/or emotional challenges, including depression, anxiety, trauma, ADHD, and my specialization, addiction.
When I offered art therapy and supervision for 20 years with my additional addiction certification for non-profits, it made therapy fun and accessible for many of our clients. I also became certified in hypnotherapy and EMDR and sometimes combined this with art to help people resolve self-defeating thoughts and traumatic memories. The art experience most of all gave them hope and helped them connect, and reconstitute their thinking and emotional regulation. As they say in AA, “put the cork in the bottle and change everything.” Creativity is the opposite of addiction. It offers a way to take safe risks. My graduate student interns were awed by the sincerity, resourcefulness and creativity of the clients.
We need Governor Hochul to sign the bill S8715/A9018 on her desk. This is not our first rodeo. A similar bill for commercial insurers passed in 2020, but remained unsigned by her, and again by Cuomo before her, due to political infighting of other professions that lobby NY governors to keep one of the most popular and effective treatments out of the insurance formularies. Is there really a scarcity of mental health clients now? Evidently not, as last year the attorney general started an investigation into insurance “ghost” providers of mental health treatment, finding only 14% of therapists were taking new clients.
Currently, unless you have Cigna, to attain this valuable, generative service, you need to pay out of pocket. In my private practice, clients with expensive private or public insurance cannot use it. This is not fair to the public, or to the many creative arts therapy graduates, trained in the same way as other clinicians, who will have a hard time being hired to serve the public. The creative arts are the primary treatment for children who are struggling with many community challenges. If we treat them now, they will get a good foundation and will have a happier, healthier inner child when they grow up.
To contact the Governor call 518-474-8390, or email her and ask her to pass sign the bill that we have worked hard to get to this point: governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form. If art therapist can’t be hired into public health jobs, it’s just a matter of time before we too become extinct.
Patricia Quinn, NYS Licensed Creative Arts Therapist
Warwick