The role for creative health associates: exploring the fundamental impact of creative health practitioners
On Wednesday 10 September 2025, Mobilising Community Assets (MCA), in partnership with the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and Arts4Us, hosted a webinar on the role of creative health associates which was attended by researchers, practitioners and members of a wide range of organisations. It is with great pleasure that we share a recording of the webinar below.
Following a presentation by MCA Programme Director Helen Chatterjee, Alex Coulter (Director of the NCCH) and Jayne Howard (Programme Manager, NCCH) gave a presentation on the Creative Health Associates Programme, delving into the origins of the programme and exploring its achievements and findings.
Then, Professor Vicky Karkou (Edge Hill University) from Arts4Us - joined by Arts4Us creative health associates Dr Pui Sze Cheung (Music Therapist and Arts & Health researcher), Nicola Brophy (Art Therapist), Miriam Sakwa (Art Therapist), Saz Domville (Creative Psychotherapist), Matthew McCloskey (Arts4theBlues facilitator & CBT CAMHS practitioner) and Dr Anna Smirnova (Social Researcher & Art and Health practitioner), gave a brilliant presentation titled The role of the creative health associates in the Arts4Us project: Bridging Communities to Support the Mental Health of Children and Young People and Address Health Inequalities through Place-Based Arts Initiatives, featuring animation and music created by children and young people in Arts4Us workshops. The presentation also delved into Arts4Us’ work with children and young people, as well as the project’s collaboration with its many partners across the United Kingdom, and its data collection and analysis, encouraging professionals supporting children and young people’s mental health to take part in their research study.
The presentations were each followed by Q&As which gave webinar attendees the opportunity to react live to both presentations. For those of you who missed out on the event and would like to reach out and connect, please see below for more information about NCCH and Arts4Us.
About the NCCH Creative Health Associate (CHA) programme and Arts4Us
The National Centre for Creative Health’s (NCCH) Creative Health Associate (CHA) programme supported the NCCH’s ambition to foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and care and demonstrate the power of culture and creativity to benefit the lives of individuals and communities. The programme was delivered from July 2023 to March 2025 by seven CHAs hosted by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), one in each NHS region in England. They were supported by a Creative Health Programme Manager through peer support and leadership development. It was funded by Arts Council England. More information including a Programme Report can be found here>>
Arts4Us is a project led by Vicky Karkou (Edge Hill University), and which aims at scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support the mental health of children and young people. The project focuses on the mental health of young people aged 9 to 13, creating an easy-to-use digital platform where evidence-based local arts activities can be made accessible for children and young people, their families and relevant organisations and services. More information can be found here >>
About Mobilising Community Assets
Mobilising Community Assets is a three-phase UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded Research Programme running from 2021 to 2027. It is coordinated by the Culture-Nature-Health Research Group at University College London, in partnership with the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), led by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Medical Research Council (MRC). Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities (MCA) has encouraged the projects it has funded throughout the UK to share knowledge and approaches to integration of community assets into the integrated care structures that exist in the local communities.
