FAQ's
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Arts & Health South West?
AHSW is an information, support and advocacy organisation for people who believe in the value of creativity in enhancing people’s health and wellbeing.
We aim:
- To be the leading arts and health representative / umbrella organisation in the South West;
- To raise the profile of the arts and health in order to promote understanding and awareness of the role, value and contribution of arts to healthcare within the region;
- To build on and strengthen the regional arts and health infrastructure in order to support strategic and sustainable development of arts and health practice;
- To provide information and support for those working in the arts and health sector within the region;
- To support health practitioners to deliver health outcomes through targeted arts and health interventions;
- To encourage meaningful and productive partnerships between statutory, third sector and independent healthcare and arts organisations within the region;
- To support the professional development of people working in the arts and health sector;
- To facilitate access to the current arts and health evidence base and promote improved understanding of research and evidence in order to encourage robust evaluation practices;
For more information about AHSW go to About Us
What is Arts and Health?
Arts and Health refers to any creative collaboration between artists and people working in health and social care; and any creative initiative that includes the arts which directly or indirectly is intended to enhance people’s health and well-being.
The health community may wish to work with the arts for a wide range of reasons:
- The arts can help the Health Sector deliver its targets against specific national, regional and local strategies
- The arts can help deliver different partners’ shared priorities, for example in relation to engaging disaffected young people, tackling obesity, nurturing user-led advocacy, supporting independent living and helping to regenerate communities
- Engaging with artists can make people feel better, improve people’s self-esteem and self-confidence
- Engaging with artists can improve people’s quality of life and can be used in a preventative way to promote good health and general well-being
- The arts promote a well cared for and welcoming environment and create public spaces of distinction
- Artists provide innovative ways of working, and are good at fulfilling a number of different agendas, working across sectors and with different interest groups
- The arts can be used to educate people about specific health issues
- The arts are a good way to include and involve staff, and can improve staff morale
- The arts help Health Trusts build links with the local community
- The Arts Therapies offer Art, Dance, Music or Drama as a psychological therapy
The Arts and Health sector in the South West is extremely diverse - particularly in terms of the type of work being done, the art-forms used, the client groups with whom people work, and the scale and sustainability of the work.
People initiating Arts and Health work include:
- Primary, Acute and Mental Health Trusts
- Local Authorities (including Social Services, Arts Development, LEAs, and the Youth Service)
- Voluntary Sector Health and Social Care organisations
- Public Health agencies
- General Practitioners
- Artists
- Arts Therapists
- Arts Organisations
- Teaching Hospitals
- F.E. and H.E. Colleges
The types of work includes:
- People working in the Medical Humanities
- People using creative writing and poetry in a health context
- GPs developing arts initiatives
- The different arts therapies
- People developing PFI Public Art projects
- Arts Co-ordinators employed by Acute Trusts
- People working in hospices
- Theatre companies doing issue-based work
- People working within the criminal justice system
- Work with people with mental health needs
- Work with people with learning disabilities
So where do the Arts Therapies fit in?
Arts Therapies are one aspect of the Arts and Health sector – it is very important to understand the differences between the formal Arts Therapies and other types of Arts and Health work.
The Arts Therapies (Art, Dance & Movement, Music and Drama) are specific approaches to working with people which combine arts and psychotherapy practice. This enables psychological healing through art making, creative expression and therapeutic relationship[s].
The Arts Therapies offer Art, Dance, Music or Drama as a psychological therapy. It is now illegal to offer Arts Therapies without appropriate training and registration with the Health professions Council (HPC).The HPC website (www.hpc-uk.org) has an online register of all Art Psychotherapists, Music Therapists and Drama Therapists. Dance Movement Therapy will be joining HPC soon. Arts Therapists are dual trained, first in their art form and then as an art form specific psychotherapists.
Artists, who are not trained Arts Therapists, working on Arts and Health projects do not use the arts as a distinct therapy and engage people in the creative process for a wide variety of reasons (see What is Arts and Health?). The value of this work is ‘therapeutic’ in the broadest sense of the word as it often increases people’s self-esteem and self-confidence, and generally improves their mental health.
For artists and arts therapists (across all art forms) working in health settings their experience as an artist is vital. Artists are approaching the work with their own creativity, and tend to look at the world quite differently from the health professionals. Working with the arts gives people the opportunity to relate imaginatively to the world and their own place in it.
The different approaches of Arts Therapies and other Arts and Health work can complement each other. Each has people working in them who are specialists in their field with expertise, experience and knowledge. There is huge potential for mutual learning and sharing Best Practice.
More understanding about the work which each is doing will strengthen the sector, help identify gaps in provision, and allow individuals and organisations to benefit from what is most appropriate for them. Any people using health services may need different types of provision at different times, delivering the right provision for the right person at the right time is facilitated by good communications, connections and understandings across the arts therapies and the arts and health.
How can I get funding for my initiative?
There are many sources of funding for Arts and Health initiatives including:
- National Lottery (Awards for All, Big Lottery Fund, Arts Council, Sports Council)
- Arts Council England, South West
- Charitable Trusts
- Health Trusts
- Local Authorities
- Business Sponsorship
For links to more information and advice about fundraising click here.