Creative Public Health
Creative Public Health
A synthesis of opinion from experts in the field
This article synthesises the views of eight Creative Health advocates from the UK, as we discuss where creativity sits within the Public Health agenda and how the global community can learn from their experiences.
Contributions come from three Directors of Public Health: Darrell Gale, DPH for East Sussex County Council, Nadia Inglis, DPH for Walsall Council, and Stephen Gunther, DPH for Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Adding to their contributions is Rhys Boyer, Senior Programme Officer (Creative Public Health) at Birmingham City Council, Claire Hickey, Arts Officer at Warwickshire County Council, Marcus Lynch, Cultural Development Manager at Coventry City Council, Helen Billings, Head of Partnerships and Development at Walsall Together, and Timothy Jenkins, Heritage Consultant at Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The final article has been synthesised by Jane Hearst, the Midlands Creative Health Associate at NCCH.
The Draw Towards Creative Health
Creative Health activities and approaches can often spark a sense of possibility for those working in traditional health and culture environments. What this possibility looks like can vary depending on local contexts, ambitions, and perspectives.
For Stephen, the thing that excites him about Creative Health is the way that talented minds are moved to innovate. Darrell states that artistic training challenges creatives to think as broadly as possible and, when applied to the field of health, this adds a new and important perspective. For Rhys, Creative Health signals an opportunity to develop a comprehensive and diverse evidence-base that is more reflective of local communities. Marcus enjoys how Creative Health showcases the value of creative practitioners in society, demonstrating their impact outside of traditional settings. He is excited by how non-medical interventions can relieve some of the pressure on resource-starved health services, and how residents benefit from reduced reliance on prescribed medication. Tim commends the way that Creative Health has amplified the value of heritage sites and systems, inviting visitors to participate in health outcomes and explore collections in new ways.
Local Public Health Remits
Creative Health can be adapted and applied to a range of different place-based agendas. Across the six localities represented, there was a breadth of work discussed.
Areas mentioned were: social cohesion; wellbeing across the life course; improved sense of belonging and self-worth; creation of safe spaces; building stronger communities; tackling social equality, poverty, and access to opportunities; reduction in youth violence and knife crime; facilitating respectful dialogues across communities; supporting people to have their experiences seen and their knowledge contribution acknowledged; workforce development and employment; promotion of healthy behaviours; supporting regeneration at place and neighbourhood level; supporting homeless people, immigrants, and other disenfranchised communities. It was also added that Creative Health approaches provide ‘a way of solving intractable problems’ and that cultural infrastructure ‘provides a therapeutic learning experience that allows visitors to contextualise modern society’.
This wide span of potential benefits is what has motivated Public Health teams across the UK to begin investing in specific Creative Health work streams. Birmingham is a prime exemplar. Rhys explains that their team have a ‘dedicated programme towards Creative Health and have committed over £300,000 towards this agenda within the next two years, with active participation and engagement activities within this.’
Claire explains, ‘by embedding Creative Health within Public Health and NHS/ICS workstreams, it becomes a permanent delivery mechanism that will tackle health priorities and outcomes based on local need.’ Marcus adds, ‘I would like to see a system in which creative experiences and interventions were front and centre of any social prescribing offer, with GPs, consultants, school counsellors and other health workers eager and confident to suggest and signpost such opportunities to patients.’
Barriers and Enablers
Integrating Creative activities and approaches into traditional health systems comes with a range of barriers, but there are also key resources that have enabled stakeholders to progress with their visions for Creative Health.
The barriers that our experts identified included: the breadth of work that Public Health Teams are dealing with; inaccurate perspectives about Creative Health; tightly structured services with equally tight budgets; mandatory requirements naturally taking priority; a lack of sustainable funding and strategy; distributions of power; communication between different sectors; capturing the plethora of activity in the evidence-base; sifting through vast research and evaluation tools to find the right fit; bureaucracy of statutory organisations/ changing the culture.
Enabling factors were identified as: Creative Health networks; accessing suites of resources from national bodies; local leadership, advocacy and partnership which connects local services with creative minds; permission to try new things; championing the approach publicly and loudly; team ambition; meaningful and trusting relationships with the community at a hyper-local level; drawing upon community expertise; external funding; collaborators who are able to offer discretionary effort to make things happen; political support; social prescribing link workers.
Helen highlights the value offered across collaborations; ‘we need the best of both worlds, the political support and the checks and balances that local authorities the NHS and larger organisations bring whilst at the same time harnessing the energy and innovation of smaller organisations’. Darrell adds that an important enabler, locally, was ‘the development of a knowledge base and policy framework in our position paper of Creative Health’.
What the Global Public Health Community Can Learn from Their Experience
Claire points to the importance of learning from one another’s mistakes and successes, joining up knowledge and activity in the early stages, and replicating best practice rather than reinventing the wheel. She also suggests leaders consider the sustainability and growth of provisions, avoiding the reliance on one or two key coordinators, and thinking of creativity as more than just a nice add on.
Nadia and Helen consider the importance of outcome frameworks to drive policy and inform how a local authority works with the third sector.
Stephen encourages global leaders to understand what you already have; ‘there are lots of amazing groups, projects and activities happening across your patch. Part of the role could be to connect and facilitate collaboration and mutual support as well as linking in with health and care leads. Also understand what local residents see in the creative movement and heritage of a place, as you’ll discover many passions which can be enhanced.’
Finally, Darrell recognises the reciprocal relationship of global leaders; ‘I think many global cultures incorporate creativity and artistry far more, already, into wellbeing because they are not limited by western medicinal models. We should learn from them and think how they evaluate success – it may not be in the ways we do. Creative problem solving and the ability to arrive at new perspectives and solutions is key to creative thought.’
The Place of Academia
Marcus notes that ‘higher education institutions have significant stakeholder presence and influence, and are well positioned to advocate strongly for the value of creative health in the development and delivery of local Cultural and Public Health strategies.’ One way that is can be meaningfully achieved, according to Timothy, is by embedding Creative Health into curricular modules.
Helen believes that a powerful move would be making information and opportunities accessible to collaborators outside of academia; ‘the way research funds are constructed can mean that the majority of resources stay within academic institutions rather than supporting those providing the wisdom. We are especially committed to peer research models, which offer training, payment, and wider status to those who contribute to research.’
Rhys stresses the importance of formulating a system of excellence around research. Claire adds that we must define which methods and frameworks are robust and best fit for this work, so that they can be meaningfully compared to other – non-creative – health interventions. Importantly, WEMWBS is not considered the right tool. Darrell, on the other hand, invites academia to challenge medical rigidity by asking about additional outcomes, such as ‘What limits will you now remove from your future as a result of your recovery?’
More on Creative Public Health
To hear more opinions on Creative Public Health, explore the News and Blogs page on our website where you’ll find roundtable discussions on the place of creativity in Public Health, from the perspectives of both researchers and Directors of Public Health.
DPH Roundtable find out more >>
Researchers Roundtable find out more >>
