PH Open Conference 2016

1. The role of the arts and creativity in
public health – now and in the future
Dr Fiona Sim OBE,
Chair, Royal Society for Public Health
Belfast, 11th October 2016

2. • Policy context for Arts and Health
• Background to RSPH contribution
This Presentation
• The scope and the evidence
• RSPH Special Interest Group
• Aesthetics and public health – a very brief case study
• APPG

3. “The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and
promoting health through the organised efforts of society.”
“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life
and promoting health through the organised efforts of
society.”
Donald Acheson, Public Health in England,1988
Public Health Definition
Donald Acheson, Public Health in England,1988
“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting
health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society,
organisations, public and private, communities and individuals.”
Derek Wanless, Securing good health for the whole population, 2004

4. •Health in all Policies – LGA 2016; WHO 2006, 2013
•APPG – launched Jan 2014
Recent Policy Context - England
•Mental Health parity of esteem – Health & Social Care Act
2012
•Wider Public Health Workforce – DH, HEE, PHE, 2015
•Evidence- and Outcomes-based Commissioning
– NHS England

5. The Royal Society for Public Health
Policy
Vision: everyone has the opportunity to optimise
their health and wellbeing
RSPH
Qualifications
ConferencesMembers
Journals

6. •RSPH has long been a strong proponent of the capacity of the arts to improve
health and wellbeing, and it has done much to identify and promote the excellent
creative programmes that are happening across the UK
•The RSPH’s annual Arts and Health Awards highlight outstanding UK projects,
Contribution of RSPH to Arts and Health
•The RSPH’s annual Arts and Health Awards highlight outstanding UK projects,
recognizing organisations and individuals who have made significant
contributions to research and practice
•The journals and education programmes of the RSPH have focused on the
growing arts and health movement: contributing to public health professionals,
national and local government and the public now recognizing the contribution
that the arts can make to a healthier society

7. •Theoretical perspectives, hypotheses
•Research methods
•Evaluation
•Professional practice in creative arts, therapies medical/health
humanities, health and wellbeing
The Scope of Arts and Creativity
in Public Health
humanities, health and wellbeing
•Building evidence for the contribution of the arts and creativity in
the therapeutic environment – across the life course
•Building evidence for public health interventions for health
improvement
•Local and national policy development

8. •Participatory arts programmes to deliver specified health
outcomes.
•Technology-based arts activities to deliver health outcomes.
•Arts for public health engagement and education.
•Arts for improving the health environment.
•Arts to improve staff welfare and contribute to staff development.
Nine Types of Arts in Health Activities –
Source: Aesop Toolbox
•Arts to improve staff welfare and contribute to staff development.
•Arts to support system change.
•Arts in psychotherapy.
•Arts for expressing the experience of health and social care
services.
•Everyday arts activities with general health benefits.

9. Arts, Wellbeing and Health
– the Evidence
•Robust evidence base is central to validate the impact that the creative
arts can have on supporting society
•Emerging international evidence base of the benefits the arts can bring
to health
•Growing evidence of affordable benefit as well as efficacy: essential
for commissioning within finite resources
•Evidence that the creative arts have a positive effect on health and
wellbeing across the lifespan
•Evidence from different settings including hospitals, schools,
community centres, workplace, care homes, and prisons

10. Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health
and Wellbeing, Eds Clift & Camic, 2016
Foreword from Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health
“This important book could not be more timely as it draws together the many
strands of arts and health”
“public health professionals, national and local government and the public now
recognise the contribution that the arts can make to a healthier society”
“This book underlines the importance of the evidence base to validate the
impact that the creative arts can have on supporting society”
“The role of the arts in improving the public’s health has gone
mainstream, and we will be all the better for it”

11. Now in their 9th Year: The awards
recognise and celebrate a wide range of
activities, policies and strategies that
empower communities and individuals,
improve the population’s health and
address the wider social determinants of
RSPH Health and Wellbeing Awards – in
association with Canterbury Christ Church University
address the wider social determinants of
health.

12. RSPH Health and Wellbeing Awards 2016
There are six categories representing the breadth and reach
of public health projects and programmes:
•Arts & Health Award
•Community Health Development Award
•Healthier Lifestyles Award•Healthier Lifestyles Award
•Public Mental Health & Wellbeing Award
•Technology & Health Innovation Award
•Workplace Health & Wellbeing Award
Winners are announced at an annual awards event celebrating
achievement and best practice in public health and offering an excellent
opportunity to network

13. Representation in our journals 1
Special issue in Perspectives in Public Health (2013)
included papers on:
• The effects of participating in creative activities on the health
and well-being of children and young people: a rapid review
• Promoting well-being through creativity: how arts and public• Promoting well-being through creativity: how arts and public
health can learn from each other
• Eudemonic well-being and community arts on prescription
• Museums and art galleries as partners for public health
interventions
Forthcoming Special Issue in Perspectives in Public Health (2018)
on Culture, Health and Wellbeing
Numerous highly-cited papers published in both journals on Arts,
Health and Wellbeing topics

14. Representation in our journals 2
Effects of participating in creative activities on the health and
wellbeing of children and young people: a rapid review of the literature
Perspectives in Public
Health
2013; vol. 133, 1:44-
52.

15. Representation in our journals 3
Active music making: a route to enhanced subjective wellbeing
among older people
Perspectives in
Public Health 2013
Vol 133 No 1. 36-43.

16. Representation in our journals 4
Meaningful activities for improving the wellbeing of people with dementia
Perspectives in
Public Health 2016
Vol 136 No 2. 99-
107.

17. Representation in our journals 5
The perceived
effects of singing on
the health and
wellbeing of wives
and partners ofand partners of
members of the
British Armed
Forces: A cross-
sectional survey.
S. Clift, S. Page, N. Daykin, E.
Peasgood.
Public Health 2016; 138: 93-100.

18. RSPH Special Interest Group in
Arts, Health and Wellbeing
•RSPH has contributed over several years in supporting the
development of the arts and health field in the UK
•The SIG helps to support research, evidence-based
practice and policy development in this vibrant field
SIG Membership:SIG Membership:
•Open to all RSPH members with an interest in the
contribution the creative arts can make to wellbeing and
health
•Membership is international
•>200 members of SIG to date

19. Aims of the Special Interest Group
•Sharing current research and best practice
•Organising conferences, seminars and
workshops
•Influencing government policy as a body of
professional opinion

21. Arts, Health and Wellbeing upcoming
conference 1 December 2016

22. Arts, Health and Wellbeing
Conference 9-10 March 2017
The conference is an opportunity to hear about new research and to engage in lively discussions
with researchers, artists, clinicians and people with dementia and caregivers:
International keynote speakers, including from Universities of Wisconsin, Helslinki, and UCL
Paper presentations and Roundtable discussions
Workshops
Art exhibition curated by people with dementia
Film screening
Closing plenary and time to explore the Wellcome Collection’s Hub, Created Out of Mind, a 2-year
arts and sciences dementia residency, and meet their artists and researchers.
Chair: Professor Paul M Camic, Canterbury Christ Church University

23. And now for something completely
different .........
Think colour and aesthetics and a major new public health
intervention

24. Cigarettes Plain Packaging
•Colour selected for packs on basis of
attractiveness / aesthetics
•Selection evidence based - research in Australia•Selection evidence based - research in Australia
•Colour: Pantone 448C = ‘opaque couché’ the
world’s least desirable hue, a sludgy brown

25. Cigarettes – Plain Packaging

26. The All Party Parliamentary Group on
Arts, Health and Wellbeing 1
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing was formed in
January 2014 to:
•Enable backbench parliamentarians, of all parties and in both Houses, to be informed about
significant practice and developments in the field of the arts, health and wellbeing
•Examine and discuss relevant government and opposition policies; contribute to the
development of policydevelopment of policy
•Enable Ministers and others in significant decision-making roles to make presentations and be
questioned
•Provide a forum for regular discussion between politicians and practitioners;
•Provide a springboard for parliamentary action, such as debates and questions for oral and
written answer
•Work with other APPGs on areas of shared interest
•Encourage the evaluation of arts and health work and the dissemination of evidence
•Support sharing of knowledge and information about good practice and facilitate access to
arts and health provision for the general public
•Professor Paul Camic, FRSPH, nominated liaison between RSPH and APPG

27. The All Party Parliamentary Group on
Arts, Health and Wellbeing 2
The APPG’s Inquiry 2015-17
The Inquiry is being conducted in two stages:
1. A series of 13 roundtable seminars have explored a range of themes and related policy
areas, identify key issues and priorities (arts & health policy, commissioning, dementia,
trauma & recovery, dying & bereavement, museums & health, health policy & devolution,
arts on prescription, young people, mental health and the arts, the arts & healthcare
environments, the arts & public health, evaluation & evidence). These involved practitioners,environments, the arts & public health, evaluation & evidence). These involved practitioners,
researchers and service users from around the UK (completed in September 2016). RSPH
contributed among many other organisations.
2. More focused meetings in 2016/17 in which expert witnesses can be questioned by
parliamentary members of the APPG and ministers and officials invited to explain policy and
to respond to and inform further policy recommendations (Select Committee model).

28. The All Party Parliamentary Group on
Arts, Health and Wellbeing 3
Dissemination of outputs:
A report with policy recommendations will be disseminated widely and form the basis for the
APPG’s three-year plan (2017-2020). The report will be launched in parliament and then at the
Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference in Bristol, 19-21 June 2017
(http://www.culturehealthwellbeing.org.uk/ ).
In the autumn of 2017 there will be further dissemination of the report and findings in regionalIn the autumn of 2017 there will be further dissemination of the report and findings in regional
seminars delivered by the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.
Examples of Good Practice:
The Inquiry has also set out a national call for examples of good practice and has received
over 120 submissions. These are in process of being prepared as case studies, which will
become an appendix to the report.
Details of meeting minutes can be found here: http://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/APPG

29. Selected Resources
• RSPH, 2013: Arts, Health & Wellbeing beyond the Millennium:
https://www.rsph.org.uk/resourceLibrary/arts-health-and-wellbeing-beyond-the-
millennium-how-far-have-we-come-and-where-do-we-want-to-go-.html
• Perspectives in Public Health Special Issue January 2013 – Arts and Health:
http://rsh.sagepub.com/cgi/collection/artshealth
•What Works Wellbeing: http://whatworkswellbeing.org/
• Evaluation Framework, PHE, 2016. http://www.ae-sop.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/08/Aesop-PHE-Arts-in-health-evaluation-framework.pdf
•Aesop [Arts Enterprise with a social purpose] Toolbox: http://www.ae-
sop.org/toolbox/aesop-toolbox/
•National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing:
http://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/

30. Further information
•Membership of RSPH is open to anyone,
anywhere, who has interest in improving
population health
www.rsph.org.uk @R_S_P_Hwww.rsph.org.uk @R_S_P_H
•Further information on the RSPH Arts and Health
Special Interest Group can be found at:
https://www.rsph.org.uk/en/membership/specialinterest-
groups/arts-and-health/

31. Thank You
©Dan Swerdlow 2010