What is creative public health?
Creative health is defined as “creating the conditions and opportunities for arts, creativity and culture to be embedded in public health”. We have adopted the phrase ‘Creative Public Health’ to get across the core value of work being centred around addressing the health inequalities experienced by Birmingham’s communities, as this is a core component of the city’s goal to become a Bolder Healthier City.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that action is targeted towards ensuring equal access to arts and culture, training for health and arts practitioners, and identifying specific public health areas for collaboration.
Evidence indicates that these are areas where arts and culture can have a positive effect. The WHO regional office for Europe, in a brief for the Health 2020 policy framework, described the arts as “often low-risk, highly cost-effective, integrated and holistic treatment options for complex health challenges".
To unlock this potential, WHO advocates for an intersectoral approach, arguing that “stronger pathways between the arts, health and social care can provide creative solutions to help to achieve the Health 2020 targets and the Sustainable Development Goals”.
The Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report by WHO identified the evidence on the role of arts in improving health and wellbeing.
Prevention and promotion:
- Affect the social determinants of health - for example developing social cohesion and reducing social inequalities and inequities
- Support child development - for example enhancing mother-infant bonding and supporting speech and language acquisition
- Encourage health-promoting behaviours - for example through promoting healthy living or encouraging engagement with health care
- Help to prevent ill health - including enhancing well-being and reducing the impact of trauma or the risk of cognitive decline
- Support caregiving - including enhancing our understanding of health and improving clinical skills
Management and treatment:
- Help people experiencing mental illness at all stages of the life course - for example by supporting recovery from perinatal mental illness and after trauma and abuse
- Support care for people with acute conditions - for example by improving the experience of and outcomes in care for hospital inpatients and individuals in intensive care
- Support people with neurological disorders - including autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, degenerative neurological disorders and dementias
- Assist in the treatment of non-communicable diseases - including cancer, lung disease, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases
- Support end-of-life care - including palliative care and bereavement
