IU Jacob School of Music has created the Office of Wellness and Arts Health Initiative, which aims to help members with mental health.
According to a press release, “the office mission is to provide wellness programming, cultivate campus and community partnerships, serve as advocates for initiatives focused on physical, mental and emotion health for well-being for students, staff and faculty.”
The initiative was created by Frank Diaz, an associate professor and coordinator of wellness and arts health initiative at the school.
"We launched this because we felt that as good as those services are, and we certainly recommend that students use these services, musicians as a group sort of have some unique things that they deal with that are very specific to being an artist and making a living in the world,” said Diaz.
Diaz also shared that the office did not want it to just be about self-care but expand it to other opportunities such as community hangouts and yoga sessions.
The office also is offering “several wellness programs, including weekly wellness drop-ins, speaker sessions, financial wellness sessions, hearing health resources, and walking exercise groups,” said the press release.
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According to the new office, the topics for the speaker sessions include “spirituality and wellbeing, injury recovery and performance, nutrition, and the alexander technique,” which focuses on posture.
The press release also stated the program is working with IU’s School of Social Work undergraduate and graduate students “to provide group and individual wellness coaching.”
The website also has other health resources available such as podcasts, meditation apps and books that relate to the mental and physical health of a musician.
The office will also launch an outreach program where students play outside the school like the IU Hospital and senior living communities.
“One will launch this semester where we are going to send some students out for a concert series where they are going to play in a different setting,” said Diaz.
