Art is good for your health

Art is good for your health - that’s the message finally getting through to NHS managers.

Two documents launched this month support the view that that the arts can speed recovery from illness and aid health promotion.

And it’s about time to, according to Arts in health pioneer Peter Senior, MBE, based at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), who has been ‘evangelising’ the philosophy since the mid 1980s.

Peter’s guide to good practice was launched this week by The Arts Council of England and is being sent to 900 NHS Trust executives to demonstrate how the arts can help in healthcare. The pack - CD Rom, Video and Directory - was compiled at the Arts for Health unit run by Peter, a trained artist.

Later this month, NHS Estates is publishing a report called the Art of Good Health, will focus on the visual arts and design of healthcare surroundings.

Peter, who travels the world advising governments and health executives, and recently received the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres medal from the French government, said: “Using art in healthcare is about improving design of new healthcare buildings, accessing messages about healthy lifestyles, and raising awareness of role arts can play in health promotion, reducing health inequalities, tackling teenage pregnancy and drug abuse, and mental health.

Launching the pack at West Middlesex Hospitals Trust on October 8, Arts Minister Baroness Blackstone said it the MMU-produced pack was “an important national resource for helping healthcare professionals start their own arts and health projects.”

Gerry Robinson, chairman of the Arts Council of England, said: “The arts can play a valuable role in hospitals and a range of healthcare settings. We believe that the arts can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life and well-being of patients, staff visitors and the community in general.”

Contact Peter Senior at Arts for Health, Manchester Metropolitan University on 0161 247 1091/1093 or p.senior@mmu.ac.uk

NB - Peter Senior’s Directory of Arts and Healthcare Organisations and Projects features more than 40 schemes nationwide:

ArtCare - Salisbury
Art for Life, Taunton
Art Operation, Maidstone
Arts for Heartlands Project, Birmingham
Arts in Hospital, Dorchester
Arts Project Northgate Hospital, Northumberland
Broomfield Arts Project, Chelmsford
Cancer Centre Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts, London
Conquest Art, West Ewell
Core Arts, London
DARTS, Doncaster
East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority, Brighton
Exeter Health Care Arts, Exeter
Gateshead Arts in Health, Gateshead
Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, London
Green Candle Dance Company, London
Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charitable Foundation, London
Hastings & Rother NHS Trust, East Sussex
Healing Arts, Isle of White
Healthy HeARTS, Wolverhampton
Jigsaw Arts, Stoke-on-Trent
LIME, Manchester
Looking Well Pioneer Projects Ltd, Lancaster
Milton Keynes General NHS Trust, Milton Keynes
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, London
Partnership for Arts in Healthcare, Southampton
The Pool of Life Arts Group, Liverpool
Priority Healthcare Wearside, Sunderland
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust, London
St Luke’s Art Project, Manchester
START in Salford, Salford
Stockport Arts & Health, Stockport
Tees & North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, Middlesbrough
Theodora Children’s Trust, London
TONIC: The Arts and Environment Programme of Leeds Teaching Hospital, Leeds
Trust Arts Project, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London
United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, Bristol
Vital Arts, London
Walsall Community Arts, Walsall