Arts and Health

Arts and Health: Head to Head

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

SIYAZAMA PROJECT

On Thursday 30th June Arts for Health at MMU in collaboration with the Centre for Medical Humanities; Pioneer Projects and Open Art, will be hosting a once in a lifetime head-to-head, with some key international figures from the Arts and Health field.

These include, amongst others Executive Director of Arts and Health Australia, Margret Meagher; Murdoch University's Dr Peter Wright; Executive Director of DADAA, David Doyle, Durban University of Technolgy's Professor Kate Wells and the Centre for Medical Humanities', Mike White.

This event will offer participants the chance to hear about some global exemplars in arts and community health and research, and take part in a discussion and networking session.

This event is free and places are going to be limited. It is likely that it will take place between 3:00 and 6:00.

Tim Maley Exhibition DADAA

To register your interest (which does not guarantee a place), simply email artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk with your name and subject line reading HEAD TO HEAD. Although priority will be given to North West Arts and Health Network members, this session will have a number of places open to colleagues from further afield.

Confirmation of a place will be provided in early June, as will fine details of the event including agenda, time and venue.

Office for National Statistics Consultation on Well-Being...

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

On Thursday 7th April, I took part in a consultation event with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) at Bolton University called; Are the Best Things in Life Free? A Public Discussion and Debate. Alongside fellow panelists Dr John Howarth – (Expert on wellbeing), Gillian Halliwell – (Manager of £17m Big Lottery Wellbeing Projects), Reverend Canon Mike Williams – (Spirituality and Wellbeing) and Rachel Burke – (Bolton Lads and Girls Club), I took the position that creativity, culture and the arts have a significant part to play in the ‘well-being’ agenda. This event gave each of us the opportunity to make a ‘pitch’ for our area of interest and, we hope, influence the ONS.

The event was chaired by Carole Truman, Professor of Health and Community Studies at Bolton University, and an opening address on the ONS consultation process was given by Stephen Hicks, Assistant Deputy Director of the Measuring National Wellbeing programme, Office for National Statistics.

Whilst I’ll make brief reference to them, I can’t aim to cover all the speakers’ contributions here, but want to give a taste of what I crammed into my far-too-brief 5 minute overview; some of the questions raised and some thoughts that didn’t have time to be aired.

An exhausted Clive tries in vain to keep his fellow panellists riveted.

It was significant that Stephen opened the session by framing well-being as being more than the subjective ‘happiness’ that seems to be the flavor of the month, and he gave a definition of the ‘dynamic’ nature of wellbeing that would be typified in the new economics foundation definition;

‘Well-being is most usefully thought of as the dynamic process that gives people a sense of how their lives are going, through the interaction between their circumstances, activities and psychological resources or ‘mental capital.’1

He went on to outline the coalition governments commitment to better understand of well-being and how it can be ‘measured’, expressing a clear understanding that subjective measurements of well-being fall outside the traditional ‘market model’. John Howarth talked about the intensity of work and family commitments and its impact on work/life balance. Gillian talked eloquently about the importance of personal resources in dealing with the stresses of life and the importance of positive social relationships.

Mike talked about faith communities as being ‘gold-mines’ of resources for community well-being; a point I’d agree with, but in my opinion he over-egged the point that well-being and spirituality are inseparable and can only be achieved through a belief in God. For me his comments about the ‘myth of the happy poor’ could warrant a full debate in itself, particularly when one considers the doctrine of some organised religion that places an emphasis on suffering in this life to gain eternal salvation. Rachel gave a full and rounded picture of the very real impact of the work of youth work and sporting activity on the well-being on children and young people as an investment in tomorrow’s citizens.

For my part, I used a number of stories in an attempt to paint a picture of how the arts/cultural engagement can impact on individuals and communities, by opening up new opportunities and offering a means of transformation. Here I’ll make reference to the points I made, and some I didn’t have opportunity to expand on.

Because this was a public event, I spelt out some clear messages: that this agenda went beyond murals on hospital corridors and that I was not a therapist, but grew as an artist within a tradition of community and participatory arts.

I shared the story of a man marginalised by learning disabilities in a long-stay hospital I worked at in the 1980’s, and how the arts enabled him not only to express his individualism, but impose some order on his chaotic life. For me, this was a significant stage in my understanding of the transformative impact of the arts.

Making sense of this individual story in relationship to wider community impact, I shared research findings from the Invest to Save: Arts in Health Project2 which illustrated not only the reduction in symptoms of ill-health, depression and anxiety in the participants of robust arts/health projects; but the increased well-being, evidenced through environmental mastery, autonomy and social connectedness. In fact, much of what are commonly referred to as the 5 Ways to Well-being3.

I discussed the range of questionnaires used, but emphasised the importance of story in making wider sense of this work and talked briefly about the importance of the arts/health community getting better at telling a richer story, of how we create value. I wanted to stress the importance of both longitudinal studies in the field, as well as embracing some of the ideas posited by John Knell and Matthew Taylor around Contingent Value and Social Return on Investment4; a point I later laboured with Stephen, and one that should be taken seriously by the ONS and the coalition government. These are areas that I would be keen to explore with partners in the field.

I spent some time equating the reported rise in anti-depressant prescribing in England over the last four years by over 40%, with consumerism and the pathologising of our day-to-day anxieties and worries, in our bid to be ‘happy’, and as Pascal Bruckner observes, “unhappiness is not only unhappiness, it is worse yet, a failure to be happy.'5

Whilst the World Health Organisation tell us that over the next 20 years, depression will become the single biggest burden on society6, I see some of the social and economic issues affecting society, married with our blind faith in well-marketed pharmacology, as contributing to high levels of social disconnectedness and isolation.

Previous editor of the BMJ, Richard Smith comments, ‘More and more of life’s inevitable processes and difficulties—birth, sexuality, ageing, unhappiness, tiredness, and loneliness —are being medicalised, and we are growing the budget of health care to tackle them. But medicine cannot solve these problems, and…I believe…that the humanities can help us with a problem as pressing as that of attitudes to death (and) climate change. Scientists have long identified the problem, but we have failed to act effectively– largely, I believe, through our evolutionary flaws of selfishness and lack of imagination.’7

I did find time to describe yet another story of people whose lives had been turned around through organizations like START in Salford8, that not only give people a sense of community and pride, but through challenging art experiences give opportunity make informed choices and flourish.

If time had allowed, I would share some of the remarkable work that I’m engaged in with Derbyshire Community Health Services, where we have evidenced astounding changes in the lives of people affected by dementia; where again, engaged in challenging art activity and not soporific reminiscence, we have evidence sentience in a number of people, who’s prognosis is in itself, the biggest discriminator. On the basis of this early work, we are embarking on an action research process to better understand this remarkable affect of the arts. And this work is not about finding a magic-bullet cure, but is focused on the quality of our existence in our later years.

Darren Browett

It is here we must strive to develop more than statistical analysis of our findings and marry the numerical data with real stories to affect cultural change in the way we perceive aging and dying, and how we care for growing numbers of people affected by dementia.

It seems that the backlash to current NHS reforms has encouraged the coalition government to enter a ‘listening exercise’, and I hope that the arts are seen as a valuable way of exploring issues around health, education and well-being. We know that the arts contribute hugely to the UK economy and according to a DCMS report in 2008 the creative industries employ 2 million people in Britain and contribute £60 billion to the economy each year, 7.3 percent of UK GDP.9

Sceptics of the arts/health agenda still call for a cold measurement of impact, holding up the Randomised Controlled Trial as the ‘gold standard’. Stephen and the panel seemed to agree that measuring well-being is far more subtle than this, and I illustrated how the figures can be manipulated, citing an article in the BMJ that showed drugs manufacturer Pfizer, chose to hold back back 74% of patient data from the clinical trials of the antidepressant Reboxetine, that showed that it is, ‘overall an ineffective and potentially harming antidepressant’.10 As Jonah Lehrer in Proust was a Neuroscientist quips, ‘…measurement is always imperfect, and explanations are easy to invent.’11

I’m not going to suggest that it’s wrong to attempt to measure well-being, or indeed the way that the arts may, or may not, contribute to this agenda. I’d go so far to say that statistics, and what we can garner from mass observations, are incredibly useful to society and knowledge. What I’d like to do though, is raise the level of this debate and the profile of our work. We observe that the arts connect people; encourage activity, learning and imagination, and through active engagement with high quality arts experiences, there is the potential to impact on public good and civic society.

The participatory arts offer us potential to flourish as humans and I urge us all to think less about illness, and disease and more about salutogenesis; the focusing on the factors that create health and well-being. I suggest to you that the arts offer us all, a way of making sense of the world, communicating our aspirations and facilitating change.

Please feed your comments into the Office for National Statistics, Measurement of National Well-Being @ http://www.ons.gov.uk/well-being


1. www.neweconomics.org/publications/measuring-well-being-in-policy
2. www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk/investtosave
3. www.neweconomics.org/projects/five-ways-well-being
4. www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/384482/RSA-Pamphlets-Arts_Funding_Austerity_BigSociety.pdf
5. Perpertual Euphoria: On The Duty To Be Happy, By Pascal Bruckner
6. www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/definition/en/
7. http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2010/12/30/richard-smith-medicines-need-for-the-humanities
8. http://www.startmc.org.uk
9.http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_2008/cepPub-new-talents.htm
10. http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c4942.full
11. http://www.jonahlehrer.com

News, Views and Opportunities...

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

Health Innovation Challenge Fund (UK)
The Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust are inviting proposals from organisations and research groups seeking to draw on funding from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund to further the development of innovative healthcare products, technologies and interventions, and to facilitate their development for the benefit of patients in the NHS and beyond. The theme for this funding round is Smart Surgery: Innovative technologies or interventions to reduce, replace or refine invasive surgical procedures. Up to £10 million is available to organisations such as NHS organisations (including NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts), and equivalent UK authorities; universities, and research institutes and not-for profit organisations; start-up companies founded to capture and develop intellectual property of relevance to healthcare; and biotechnology, pharmaceutical, bioinformatics, engineering or other companies; etc that will deliver ‘Smart Surgery’ solutions that will translate into safe and cost-effective practice into the NHS. The deadline for submitting preliminary applications is 5pm on the 28th April 2011. For more information visit: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Technology-transfer/Awards/Health-Innovation-Challenge-Fund/index.htm Fund/index.htm

Artist to work with Arts for Health group for Culture Shops
The Arts for Health service are looking to run two eight week creative courses. The courses run weekly for two hour sessions. The artists will need to have experience of working with adults suffering with mental health difficulties. The artist would work with the Arts for Health group to produce work which would then be exhibited as part of the Blackpool Culture shop programme, whereby work is displayed in an empty shop in Blackpool. The first course would be April- June 2011 and second course to be June-August 2011. Details at: http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/index.phpid=25&ne_source=dailyjobs&ne_post_id=59238

Arthur and Martha

An Interesting Project to Watch
Arthur and Martha engagement project with older people in St.Helens.
Over the course of this week the Arthur and Martha are working in diverse settings such as the local health centre, library and bingo group... These initial pilot taster sessions will shape how we move forward from this period and develop the activity. As well as delivering the project Arthur and Martha will be blogging about the work and I thought you would be interested in being kept up to date on how the project is progressing.
The link to the blog can be found here:
http://arthur-and-martha.blogspot.com/2011/04/comfort-smell-waft.html

Knowledge Lives Everywhere
Arts and Health week 2 - 8 June 2011
Do you work with arts and health? Are you an individual or an organisation with something to contribute to the new FACT exhibition Knowledge Lives Everywhere? Throughout this exhibition there are themed weeks being held in Gallery 2, programmed by FACT collaborators and guests. We would like to hear from you if you work within arts and health and have a film you would like to screen (or suggest a topical film), give a talk, do a performance or wish to have a change of scene and hold a meeting in the space! Do you have any burning issues surrounding arts and health you wish to communicate to the world via a webcast? We will try and accommodate your content and ideas. Please use this opportunity to put the spotlight on arts and health during an exciting exhibition which celebrates all things creative and collaborative! We look forward to hearing from you. If you are interested in taking part please contact Angy or Kat on 0151 707 4416 or waiting@fact.co.uk
http://www.fact.co.uk/about/exhibitions/2011/knowledge-lives-everywhere  

Reading for Wellbeing: The Reader Organisation’s Second National Conference
Tuesday 17th May 2011
Floral Pavilion, New Brighton, Wirral
“Get Into Reading helps patients suffering from depression in terms of: their social well-being, by increasing personal confidence and reducing social isolation; their mental well-being, by improving powers of concentration and fostering an interest in new learning or new ways of understanding; their emotional and psychological well-being, by increasing self-awareness and enhancing the ability to articulate profound issues of self and being.”
‘Therapeutic Benefits of Reading in Relation to Depression’, Billington et al., 2011
Further details at http://www.thereader.co.uk/

Music & wellbeing: Making Music Conference
10 – 11 September 2011, Glasgow
The impact and application of music to improve mental, physical and social wellbeing has many advocates and well-established initiatives demonstrating positive impact. Making Music will be looking at programmes taking place across the UK and the opportunities these create for voluntary music. http://www.makingmusic.org.uk/events/conference

Arts in Health – a new prognosis
In this article, our friend and colleague Mike White looks at how the arts community can adapt and respond to changes in healthcare provision and organisation. In recent years the arts in health field has acquired the expertise to address a wide spectrum of medical, health and social care issues. It has the resilience and resourcefulness to weather the impending health service reforms in an era of austerity. But it will need to adapt conceptually and in delivery to healthcare environments in which patient choice, GP commissioning power and a new public health workforce are the drivers of change.
http://ixia-info.com/new-writing/arts-in-health-%E2%80%93-a-new-prognosis-mike-white  

Thursday Night Film Screening at MMU

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

FILM EVENING
This Thursday evening at MMU in room JD CO-14 in the John Dalton Building (opposite the BBC see linked map building number 11 http://www.mmu.ac.uk/travel/maps/mmu_maps_allsaints_aytoun.pdf) 
Starting 6:00 prompt till 8:30.

The Lost Generation Project is about finding the lost stories of people with intellectual disabilities, many institutionalised for most of their lives. It is about hearing these stories and recognising and celebrating people who have traditionally been socially isolated and aims to assist these people to connect to their communities through arts and culture. The Lost Generation Project has found unique people from across Australia and provided them with the technology and skills to tell their stories on film. Each core project participant or storyteller is offered the opportunity to make a short film that tells their story.

Simone Flavelle is the Manager/Executive Producer of this project and she will be giving us the opportunity to see some of these films and engage in a discussion.

To register for this event, email artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk  There will be a small charge on the evening of £2.00 on the door to cover costs for this event.

Thank you to all those who have registered so far. 

Details of this work and 5 films are available to view on line at: http://www.disseminate.net.au/lost_generation_project_2
  
IT'S A RAP

Now I'm not sure whether this is the true public face of Arts and Health...but I can certainly see the connection! MC NxtGen and a take on NHS 'reform'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl1jPqqTdNo

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY:
Thursday 30th June: International Arts and Health HEAD to HEAD (part of the Northern Uproar and m a n i f e s t o  events) 

Details of this unique event at MMU (which will offer members of the North West Arts and Health Network the opportunity to meet key figures from the Arts and Health field from the UK, USA, Ireland, South Africa and Australia) and will be advertised shortly.

Please note at this stage we are not able to take reservations, but details will be posted on the BLOG asap.

MoMA the Arts and Dementia

I have just returned from an intensive period of activity with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York exploring synergies between the arts and dementia as part of an action research programme I am undertaking within an NHS trust between 2011-2015. A report relating to this work will be available via Arts for Health shortly alongside a dedicated BLOG. Thanks to Carrie McGee at MomMA and Dr Anne Basting at the University of Wisconsin.

BIG SOCIETY (a good read)
Arts Funding, Austerity and the Big Society: Remaking the case for the arts John Knell and Matthew Taylor
http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/384482/RSA-Pamphlets-Arts_Funding_Austerity_BigSociety.pdf

AND FINALLY...
Recent weeks have seen much action towards the m a n i f e s t o, with events in Cumbriia planned...more details soon…

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

Are the Best Things in Life Free?
A Public Discussion and Debate

What matters most to you in life? If we wanted to measure wellbeing - what things should we include? These and other questions will form the focus of a stimulating public event which is being hosted by the Centre for Research for Health and Wellbeing at the Univesity of Bolton on Thursday 7th April at 4pm. The event will include a panel of experts who will make a pitch for the things they think play a role in wellbeing - and there will be lots of opportunity for the public to participate and join in the debate. The discussion and arguments will be fed back to the Office of National Statistics who have been asked by the government to devise a measure of national wellbeing.
Further details at http://www.bolton.ac.uk/CRHW/News/Articles/ONS030211.aspx 

Breakthrough are delighted to announce that they are holding another Arts in Health Event in Manchester on Friday the 10th of June, 2011. We are keen to build on the momentum generated from previous events, using the setting as a way in which to promote positive practice, showcase the talents of service users, bring people and ideas together and to work towards developing a unified, national strategy for moving forwards. It would be great to have you involved!
Please visit the website http://www.breakthroughmhart.com/  or get in touch via breakthrough@mentalhealth.freeserve.co.uk  

The Triangle Trust 1949
Fund Opens for Applications (UK)
The Triangle Trust 1949 Fund is currently inviting applications from charity organisations to support projects that support:

• Carers
• Community arts and education
• Disability
• Older people
• Poverty
• Integration and rehabilitation

Grants are normally in the range of £1,000 and £10,000. The objectives of the Fund are; the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of good health and welfare; the advancement and furthering of education. Successful projects will either maintain an open, inclusive society or promote integration (or reintegration) of individuals or groups into society. Preference will be given to smaller charities; charities which serve a locality or region of the UK, rather than national charities; and causes which find it more difficult to raise funds from the general public. The next application deadline is the 14th May 2011. For more information visit: http://thetriangletrust1949fund.org.uk/

Two Exhibitions at the University of Salford
Wed, 30 March 2011 to Sat, 30 April 2011
Ghislaine Howard: The Choreography of Walking

Personal experience drew artist Ghislaine Howard to the subject of walking: from charting the first hesitant steps of her children, to watching the determination and courage of her mother refusing to accept the debilitating progress of Parkinson’s disease. Central to this exhibition is the work Ghislaine has done in conjunction with the University of Salford’s Podiatry Department, which increased her wonder at the extraordinary choreographies of walking. “The simple act of putting one foot in front of the other - so natural it seems for most of us, so hard won for others.” http://www.ghislainehoward.com/

Venue: Chapman Gallery, Chapman Building, University of Salford, M5 4NT
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday (12-5pm), also open Saturday 2 April & Saturday 30 April (12-5pm). The gallery will be closed on Bank Holidays Friday 22 & Friday 29 April.

Sarah Coggrave, Bronwyn Platten and others...: Mouths and Meaning
Tue, 24 May 2011 to Fri, 24 June 2011

Bronwyn Platten & Sarah Coggrave: Flumpy (2010) & Untitled (2010)

Mouths and Meaning is a research project and exhibition developed by Bronwyn Platten, towards her PhD based in the School of the Built Environment, the University of Salford. The focus of Mouths and Meaning is to explore and creatively represent experiences of embodiment, food and eating by those who have been affected by an eating disorder. Using a multisensory, holistic and interdisciplinary approach the exhibition will showcase a range of new works including photography, film and sculpture developed by Sarah Coggrave in collaboration with Bronwyn Platten; a selection of individual works by both artists as well as a series of drawings by workshop participants from England, Scotland and Australia.

Bronwyn’s studentship has been funded by EPSRC as part of the collaborative, multi-institutional Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation (HaCIRIC), IMRC Centre, the School of the Built Environment, the University of Salford.
Venue: Chapman Gallery, Chapman Building, University of Salford, M5 4NT
Opening hours: 12 - 5pm, Wed to Sat
Preview/launch event: Tuesday 24 May, 6-8pm (free admission, everyone welcome!)

Exclusive DADAA Film Screening and Call for Papers

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under

The Lost Generation Film Project (DADAA Inc)

6:00pm to 8:30pm, Thursday 31st March 2011
At Manchester Metropolitan University

This is a unique opportunity to experience the work of DADAA and thanks to Durham University’s Centre for Medical Humanities, who have supported this event.

The Lost Generation Project is about finding the lost stories of people with intellectual disabilities, many institutionalised for most of their lives. It is about hearing these stories and recognising and celebrating people who have traditionally been socially isolated and aims to assist these people to connect to their communities through arts and culture. The Lost Generation Project has found unique people from across Australia and provided them with the technology and skills to tell their stories on film. Each core project participant or storyteller is offered the opportunity to make a short film that tells their story.

Simone Flavelle is the Manager/Executive Producer of this project and she will be giving us the opportunity to see some of these films and engage in a discussion.

To register for this event or get more details, email artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk  There will be a small charge on the evening of £2.00 to cover costs for this event.

Thank you to all those who have registered so far. Confirmation of places and details of venue will be provided 1 week prior to the event.

Details of this work and 5 films are available to view on line at: http://www.disseminate.net.au/lost_generation_project_2  
 
CALL FOR PAPERS

Striking a Chord
Music, Health and Wellbeing:Current Developments in Research and Practice

Date: 9th-10th September 2011
Venue: University Centre Folkestone
http://www.sempre.org.uk/resources/2011_sept_calls.pdf

What a Life

by Free Software on Nov.22, 2009, under