Embedding Creative Health to Support Staff Wellbeing
As NHS services continue to face increasing demand and workforce pressures, the wellbeing of health and social care staff has never been more important.
Supporting the wellbeing of health and care staff has never been more important. Across the sector, teams are under increasing pressure, often working in challenging environments that can take a toll on mental health, resilience, and morale. Creative health offers a powerful way to address these challenges, providing opportunities for expression, connection, and renewal that benefit both individuals and the wider workplace culture. In this blog, we explore how embedding creative approaches into staff wellbeing strategies can foster healthier, more supportive environments where staff can thrive.
At Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (DGT), Dr Jane Stevens, Associate Medical Director for Wellbeing and Workforce, is pioneering a new approach, using creative health interventions to support her workforce. When Dr Stevens joined the Trust, she was tasked with improving staff wellbeing across the organisation. Rather than defaulting to standard wellbeing models, she saw an opportunity to integrate creative health approaches, a more holistic way of supporting the physical, mental and emotional resilience of staff.
“I wanted to do something that genuinely helped people reconnect with themselves and their purpose in the work,” she explains.
Connecting with Nature: The Retreat Programme
Through a connection with Caversham Group Practice in North London, Dr Stevens was introduced to The Quadrangle, an educational space and retreat centre in the Darent Valley. The Quadrangle was launching Out in the Field, a one-day nature connection retreat designed to help NHS and social care workers prioritise their wellbeing.
After attending one of the first retreats herself, Dr Stevens immediately recognised the potential. With support from the Trust's executive team, the retreat programme began rolling out to staff in 2022.
The retreat is built around creative and restorative activities, including:
- Forest bathing: a calming immersion in nature
- Sophrology: breathwork, gentle movement and visualisation
- Nutritional therapy: a wholesome meal with insights from a trained chef-nutritionist
- Storytelling: a chance to share personal experiences in a safe, supportive environment
- Free time in nature: reflection and rest at The Quadrangle’s serene rural setting
Since 2022, around 2,000 staff have attended wellbeing retreats, with 100% of surveyed participants in 2022–2023 recommending the experience and 95% feeling more confident in supporting their own wellbeing. Dr Stevens has embedded creative health practices within the Trust, including weekly sophrology sessions, monthly drop-in wellbeing activities, and a woodland garden for staff use. Looking ahead, she aims to introduce an artist-in-residence and connect every NHS trust to a retreat centre, demonstrating how creative, nature-based, and person-centred approaches can sustainably and cost-effectively support staff wellbeing.
Creative Health & Wellbeing: Arts Council England’s Vision for Health and Care
Creative Health & Wellbeing has also been used by Arts Council England in their strategic plan for engaging with health and social care, and for promoting collaboration between organisations and practitioners in the creative and health sectors.
The plan sets out how creativity can be embedded in health and wellbeing initiatives, demonstrating its potential to improve quality of life, tackle health inequalities, and strengthen community connections. By fostering cross-sector partnerships, it aims to create the conditions for creative approaches to become a valued and integral part of health and care delivery.
The Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network (LAHWN)
In collaboration with the Leeds Mindful Employer Network, The Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network (LAHWN) champions the role of arts and creativity in promoting workforce wellbeing. By connecting sectors including arts, health, social care and academia, LAHWN works to improve access to creative opportunities that support mental health, tackle inequalities and strengthen communities. Research highlights the preventative and therapeutic benefits of creative activities, from reducing stress and anxiety to improving physical health, making them a valuable addition to workplace wellbeing strategies. Together, the networks have developed a directory of local creative workshop providers, encouraging employers to integrate arts-based approaches into staff development, team building and mental health support.
Creative Health Supporting NHS Staff Wellbeing
Creative health initiatives are increasingly being adopted to support the mental and physical wellbeing of health and social care staff. In South East London, Breathe Arts Health Research, commissioned by the Our Healthier South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), delivers weekly wellbeing workshops for staff, which can be attended regularly or on a drop-in basis. Participants describe the sessions as meaningful, enjoyable, and inclusive, providing a space to engage in activities outside of work while benefiting from supportive and encouraging facilitators.
These programmes highlight the positive impact of creative approaches on workforce health and resilience.
Evidence from the University of Chester
The University of Chester’s Creative Health Placement offers Year 1 Bachelor of Nursing students a unique experiential learning opportunity that integrates arts and health. Initially piloted in 2022 and expanded to include 450 students in 2022–2023, the placement engages students with professional artists in dance, music, and visual arts, allowing them to participate in and facilitate creative health activities such as public projects and creative health cafés. Alongside practical experience, students visit social prescribing services and take part in structured reflection and action learning sessions.
The placement has been shown to enhance students’ confidence, communication, self-awareness, and appreciation of holistic, person-centred care, while highlighting the community benefits of non-medical approaches to health. Recognised with a Student Nursing Times Award, the program exemplifies innovative integration of creative health into nursing education and underscores the potential value of including such approaches within national nursing standards.
Our National Health Stories
Our National Health Stories is a powerful and moving portrait marking the 75th Anniversary of the NHS. This unprecedented national collaboration involved 19 hospital trusts, thousands of NHS staff across England, and a stellar creative team led by Kwame Kwei-Armah, celebrating the incredible but often hidden work of the National Arts in Hospitals Network. Over six months, NHS staff participated in a programme of creative activities that explored and reflected on what being part of the organisation means to them, culminating in live performances both within the Trusts and at a special one-off show at Aviva Studios in Manchester in November 2023.
The project was funded by Arts Council England and NHS Charities Together in partnership with NHS England, with in-kind support from the participating NHS Trusts and additional funding from their hospital charities.
The Creative Health Toolkit
The Creative Health Toolkit showcases a wide range of initiatives across England that use arts and creative practice to support skills, knowledge, and workforce development in health and care. Projects such as Mindsong in Gloucestershire and the Long Covid Assessment Clinic in Suffolk and North East Essex demonstrate knowledge exchange to improve the management of specific health conditions, while Arts Lab in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly highlights approaches for supporting additional needs.
Other examples, including Mindsong Dementia Training and Arts Well: Grow, focus on creative health provider training and joint learning between the creative, VCSE, and local authority sectors. Innovative collaborations like Creativity Works: coCreate Programme and the Performing Medicine SPACE programme create opportunities for joint training, advocacy, and information sharing across cultural practitioners, link workers, and the wider workforce. Initiatives such as Personalised Care Asthma and Children and Young People projects and Supporting Primary Care Networks with High Intensity Users demonstrate how creative approaches can enhance workforce capacity and knowledge.
