ABSTRACT
The increasingly fast throughput of adult patients in acute mental health settings is integral to how we have defined time-limited art psychotherapy treatment. With the duration of admissions on acute wards averaging less than four weeks, and given the implausibility of setting a therapeutic contract due to the unpredictability of the patient's discharge date, we are not attempting to discuss art psychotherapy within a contracted time-limited model of a kind more suitable for outpatient work. Given the specialism of art psychotherapy in acute settings, it is necessary to reconsider how the art psychotherapist communicates clinical information to staff in an environment where there may be insufficient time for her to write an assessment report for each patient outlining the aims of their therapeutic interventions.
