In Calderdale, the partnership between Calderdale Council, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group, Creative Minds, and other creative organisations has led to Living a larger life: Using creative activities to help people live well in Calderdale. The vision is to make Calderdale a leader in using arts and culture to support people’s health and wellbeing, whilst tackling health inequalities. The mission is to enable people to engage in creative approaches so that they can live well in their community and achieve their potential.

This will form part of the five year plan for Calderdale and inform the planning for the wider West Yorkshire ICS. Matt Walsh, Chief Executive of Calderdale CCG, writes in the introduction:

“The relationship between arts and health is understood in our experience of the world, and for those of us who have spent years of our lives working with people in difficulty with their health and wellbeing, it has always been clear that whilst medicine and related disciplines can help to solve many problems, the fundamental issues which confront us at a human level are to do with our relationship with ourselves, with those close to us and with the community of which we wish to be a part….Art can help us to tell new stories which will take us to new places, and art can help us to tell the old stories in a way that connect at a deeper level"

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