As part of its research agenda, University of Colorado Denver will develop and test a series of creative arts therapy programs designed to build resilience among critical care health professionals. The programs will use qualitative, mixed-method, and randomized controlled study designs and will integrate visual arts therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, and writing/poetry therapy. Research activities will include focus groups of important stakeholders, such as critical care providers, intensive care unit managers and hospital administrators, and national critical care leadership. Organization partners include Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children's Hospital Colorado and Lighthouse Writers Workshop; these organizations will help to design experimental tasks suitable for each artistic domain and will aid in recruiting participants. Future directions may include studying longer-term treatment effects of creative arts therapies for health care professionals as well as the indirect effects such programs have on patient outcomes.

The research agenda will address the following research questions:

• What changes in physical or mental health outcomes are experienced by subjects receiving creative arts therapies?; and
• What are the comparative therapeutic benefits of creative arts therapies relative to each other or to non-arts-based interventions?