The Creative Health Communication Framework
Creative health practitioners play a vital role in supporting mental health and wellbeing, but communicating the value of this work can be challenging. The Creative Health Communication Framework: A Practical Guide for Impacting Mental Health and Wellbeing is a new resource designed to help practitioners articulate their impact and navigate the complexities of engaging with diverse audiences.
About the Framework
This resource summarises a selection of insights from the upcoming academic text A Creative Health Communication Framework: Addressing the Compatibility and Marketability of Mental Health and Wellbeing Services (expected May 2025). It introduces 12 thematic categories that reflect the varied ways people experience and communicate about wellbeing. These categories aim to help practitioners connect their work to the needs and expectations of service users, funders, and healthcare stakeholders.
You can download a copy here:
The Creative Health Communication Framework >>
What the Resource Offers
This practical guide distils key ideas from the book into accessible tools for everyday use. Each section provides:
- Clear explanations of important concepts
- Real-world examples of creative health in action
- A summary of how this frame supports the promotion of Creative Health
The Creative Health Communication Framework acknowledges the diversity of wellbeing experiences and offers strategies for addressing barriers such as misaligned resources, trust-building, and communicating the scale of impact.
Why It’s Useful
Whether you’re an artist developing mental health-focused projects, or a practitioner seeking to promote your work to funders or healthcare partners, this resource provides a structured way to think about and communicate the value of creative health services. By clarifying your message, you can help ensure your work is well designed, understood, valued, and accessible.
Moving Forward
This resource is part of a growing effort to integrate creative health into formal healthcare systems, offering a broader range of support for mental health and wellbeing. Practitioners are invited to explore the Creative Health Communication Framework as a tool for reflection, connection, and growth in their work.
Download the guide to learn more and contribute to the evolving landscape of creative health practice.
Acknowledgements
This resource was developed by Dr Jane Hearst, our Midlands Creative Health Associate. The framework was originally designed as part of a 3-year PhD research project, exploring strategy and communication in creative health for mental health and wellbeing. The PhD was funded by De Montfort University via a High Flyer Scholarship.
During the PhD, Jane interviewed a number of individuals from across Leicester city about their experiences of mental health, wellbeing and identity. The cohort was developed to be ethnically diverse and representative of the different neighbourhoods across the city, prioritising those who come from areas known for health inequalities. These Lived Experience Experts co-coded their own data during the development of the Creative Health Communication Framework, to help reduce researcher bias. It is hoped that this approach to research has improved the effectiveness and representation of who the framework can support.
Special thanks go out to all the stakeholders across health systems and the cultural sector who have interacted with the framework to test its application. A further thanks goes to Routledge for supporting the production of a summary resource connected to their upcoming title.
