What are ideas for group activities for people with mental illness?

[chariot]

I'm in my psych clinical and each of the students need to lead a group activity for the patients. One student did stress bingo, meditation, drawing, talking about fears, exercise. it's my time to lead soon and I have a few ideas but I'm worried they won't like it. I thought about doing collages with magazines (but not sure if we can have scissors), decorating picture frames. What are some good ideas?

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

When I was in school I participated in a drumming circle in which there were all sorts of drums. I got down on the floor with the patients and chose a pair of bongos. Soon we all found a rhythm and the sound was amazing! It didn't matter if you were the least bit musical---drumming is relaxing and fun.

Years later when I was a patient on the same unit, I participated in drumming circle again and I swear it was better for me than the meds. I got to try different types of drums this time and by the end of the session my anxiety was gone. I recommend it highly. Check with the music therapist (if the unit has one) and see if you can lead a drumming circle or other musical group activity.

[kevjp82]

In our group, we do introductions, then we read "principles of support", and then I pass out "mental health community resources" which is a sheet that has every possible community resource available for people with mental health problems. Then I read from A Year Without Fear which is a daily reading from every day of the year by a Yale Law graduate. Then we talk about our goals and have an open sharing time at the end.