what is Arts in Health?

Arts in Health
Where the arts sector and the health sector collide, forms a field of practice, Arts in Health as a field has several distinct areas of practice:

Arts in Healthcare Settings
Arts in Healthcare Settings is active in all types of medical facility: primary, secondary and tertiary care; acute and mental health care. There is an Arts presence in both public (NHS) and private care including hospitals, hospices, surgeries, walk-in centres and day care.

The Arts can impact anyone who enters the facility, whether patient, visitor, or staff and can be found in clinics, treatment rooms, recovery rooms, consultant offices, as well as the wards and public areas of the building. Arts interactions often include, but are not limited to public performances of dance, music or drama; Artists in Residence working in public areas such as waiting rooms; site-specific commissioned artwork, and all artwork displayed, hung or exhibited in any public area from lobbies and foyers to restaurants and book stores.

Incorporating the Arts into the fabric of the building are often practical, solve a problem, or address a need. For instance, employing artists to look at issues of signage, or wayfinding; involving artists and craftsmen in the design and production of doorknobs and handrails; and incorporating artistic practice in creating curtains for the bedside and uniforms for medical staff. The Arts in the fabric of the building will be found in floors and ceilings. It may involve colour therapy when choosing paint for the walls; or landscape artists to improve disused courtyards.

Community Arts in Health
The Arts are used effectively to deliver health promotion messages on issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug and substance abuse, obesity, heart disease, testicular cancer and breast cancer. Artists will often work directly with a cross section of the target audience, either in consultation, to inform and influence the outcome of the Art, or in practice, to deliver the Art project, as well as the message itself. In addition to delivering health promotion messages, Community Arts in Health projects seek to change behaviour, leading to a healthier nation. Again, the full spectrum of the Arts are engaged in this sector. Local Authority Partnerships, Neighbourhood Renewal and Community Regeneration all share cross-cutting agendas.

Medical Humanities
Medical Humanities is the use of the Arts and Humanities in medical education, as well as practice. This may take place in a medical school, visual artists and live models in a dissection class; healthcare setting, a doctor’s use of creative writing and poetry to improve what is recorded in medical notes, or community setting, a forum theatre based CPD course for palliative care nurses in a community centre. If the Arts project teaches skills useful in the practice of medicine, or the arts are actively engaged in the practice of medicine, the project is Medical Humanities.

Arts Therapy
Art Therapy is a distinct field of practice itself and there are clear differences between the broader field of Arts in Health and Arts Therapy. The Arts Therapist works with patients through the use of arts materials and practice to effect change and growth on a personal level. Arts Therapy has been officially recognised by the Department of Health and requires a two year post graduate degree. You must be a registered Art Therapist in order to practice.

"Support for Arts in Health from Art Therapy"
seeks to open the dialogue between these two fields.