Since 1999, and Mind Matters, the Year of Mental Health and Wellbeing, HI~Arts has been working with the Health Promotion Department of the Highland NHS Trust to foster the role of the arts in both preventive and curative health and social care.

To promote understanding of the value of the arts in health care, the two bodies have now jointly produced two publications.  Try this First is a promotional brochure which is being widely circulated in the health and social care sectors to raise awareness of the role of the arts.  For those whose interest is caught, there is then a more substantial report, Creative Routes to Health, which provides guiding principles, case studies, and sources of information, advice, and documentation.  Both publications can be downloaded as pdf files, below, or printed copies can be obtained from HI~Arts by clicking here.

On 10 December 2002 the two publications were launched at a seminar in Inverness which brought together artists, arts workers, health and social care professionals, art therapists, and health services managers.  The seminar was chaired by Dr John Wrench, Director of Public Health Highland NHS Board, who introduced three speakers:

• Mike White, Director of CAHHM at the University of Durham, who described the many stimulating projects which have formed part of the five year Common Knowledge programme in the North-east of England.  Find out more at http://www.dur.ac.uk/cahhm/
   
• Dr Elizabeth Farmer, Senior Lecturer, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Stirling, The Highland Campus, who spoke about the crucial need for appreciating aesthetic considerations in training nurses how not to depersonalise patients, and to understand the impact of the health environment, and of the care they provide.
   
• Sarah Munro, traditional musician and teacher, who spoke about the direct impacts of her work as a musician with autistic children and adults with Alzheimers Disease, and explained her current research, as a NESTA fellow, into the neurological effects of music.

In the discussion which followed, chaired by Dr Anne MacLeod, dermatologist, poet and novelist, the participants in the seminar agreed that it would be valuable to set up an Internet forum to encourage further discussion and to share best practice.  If you would like to join this forum, click here.

The seminar also identified a wide range of needs and actions which could help to promote better links between the arts and healthcare sectors.  These included:

• Ensuring that there were links in place between existing arts projects and organisations, and the health sector
• Taking the arts and health agenda to a higher levelgetting the message across to those who draw up strategies and agree budgets
• Specific training for both arts and healthcare professionalsperhaps a web-based course.
• Developing one or more arts projects that were specifically designed to document and display the benefits for health, and for health promotion
• Setting up taster sessions in various arts activities which could encourage direct engagementperhaps even an Awareness Day
• Ensuring that projects aims for a balance between measured outcomesstatisticsand that special, personal moment which may be the most important aspect of the project for an individual
• Developing a strategic and incremental plan which can enable involvement at different levels
• Valuing the Common Knowledge model (see above), and not losing the centrality of communities within arts and health projects
• Recognising the importance of the academic framework for those designing services
• Valuing the benefits of existing, core cultural activities, and not just finding new money for new projects
• Undertaking long term tracking of impacts on individuals and communities (eg the proposal to assess the long term impact on those who benefited from the feisean movement 10 or even 15 years ago)
• Ensuring that projects, and the places where they happen, are truly inclusive
• Understanding the Health culture which these activities are seeking to influence
• Seeking the endorsement of the Health sector regarding the benefits of arts activities, to unlock more central funding for the arts
• Recognising that fixed-term projects are all very well, but the long term sustainability is crucial in order to effect real change
• Giving those working in the arts more help in how to evaluate the benefits of what they doprovide models of good practice
• Undertaking evaluation in a context that understands the importance of qualitative assessment, and also comprehends the different languages used by each sector.