A new national networking role for the arts and health field, funded by Arts Council England, has been awarded to the London Arts and Health Forum (LAHF). This 2-year piece of work is designed to give increased impetus to developing the field in a more co-ordinated way, following the closure of the first National Network of Arts and Health in 2007. The programme, which is still being shaped, will include lobbying policy-makers, mapping the arts and health sector nationally and co-ordinating a national conference. A central tenet of LAHF’s approach will be close working relationships with regional partners and networks to ensure the sharing of practice across the country and regional flavour and voice within the national coordination role.

Watch this space for more information as it becomes available.

At last, new for 2009 the arts and health field gets its own journal. Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice is published by Routledge and provides a welcome space for the airing of ideas, serious debate and research within the inter-disciplinary arts and health field. Arts & Health takes a broad-based approach in examining uses of the arts in public health, health promotion and health care. The journal publishes empirical research, policy analysis, theoretical discourse, systematic reviews and examples of best practice.

To find out more and to purchase the journal please visit: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rahe

The Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine has had a change of name and a huge boost to its work thanks to a Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Strategic Award. The new Centre for Medical Humanities is, for the next five years, devoted to a research programme exploring 'Medicine and Human Flourishing' - aimed at understanding the human side of medicine and exploring in particular the relationship of health and medicine to wider notions of wellbeing. A key component of the work will be the examination of the place of creativity and the arts in contributing to healthy lives.

For more information please see the centre’s website at: www.dur.ac.uk/cmh/

The long awaited book by Nesta Fellow and Director of Arts and Health at the Centre for Medical Humanities, Mike White, is now available. Arts in Community Health: A Social Tonic looks at the rapid growth of this field of work in the UK from the mid-1990s and based on the latest international research, considers how and why arts in community health has come about, the characteristics of its practice and the challenges it poses for evaluation.

The pioneering viewpoints in the book promote a holistic approach to arts and public health, focusing on the development of the person and not just the sick or dysfunctional part of that person whilst the case studies examined prove shared creativity aids public health and simultaneously identifies and addresses the local and specific health needs in a community. This fully referenced guide compares and contrasts the arts in different cultures and healthcare systems, how well it works, why it works, and the factors that determine its success.

More details on the book and how to purchase it can be found at: www.radcliffe-oxford.com/books/bookdetail.aspx?ISBN=1846191408

In September 2008 Critical Connections held an event about the continuing professional development needs of mid career professionals in the arts and health field. Nicola Turner from the Cultural Leadership Programme outlined some of the opportunities that were available, including the Meet the Challenge Development Programme, which has been developed in direct response to the capacity development issues of leadership within the cultural and creative sectors, and will provide seed funds to support organisations in meeting their leadership development needs. The programme encourages partnership and cooperation between different organisations in order to develop the right mix of approaches and the programme is still open for applications. The deadlines for applications to this programme are 12 January 2009, 4 May 2009 and a new deadline for a fourth round, 7 September 2009.

If you are interested in finding out more, details and the application process are available on the Cultural Leadership Programme Website: www.culturalleadership.org.uk/meetingthechallenge/meetingthechallenge/default.aspa

Just in case it did slip you by, Lord Darzi’s report 'High Quality Care for All' placed a statutory duty on Strategic Health Authorities to promote innovation. Of course there are lots of questions about what this means in practice and each region will approach this differently. However, coupled with an increasing emphasis on quality and dealing with subjective experience in the NHS and the expectations of World Class Commissioning on PCT’s, this may create more fertile ground for creative approaches to health and well being.

If you are interested in developing your knowledge and research capabilities in arts and health, you may be interested in the PhD run by Canterbury Christchurch University. The PhD programme provides research training in the field of arts and health with a choice to focus on intervention research in one of the arts therapies or on arts-based practice related to health and well-being i.e. the ways in which the arts contribute to health, wellbeing, social inclusion and healthcare practice across a range of healthcare and community settings. The PhD is offered within the subject area of psychology.

If you are interested in applying please contact Dr Paul Camic to discuss research interests and to identify appropriate supervisors.

email: paul.camic@canterbury.ac.uk

For further information about the PhD please visit: www.canterbury.ac.uk/social-applied-sciences/ASPD/programmes/

Following the launch of the Department of Health/Arts Council England A Prospectus for Arts and Health last year questions have been raised about what progress has been made against this work. This stimulated a House of Lords debate on March 6th which articulated support for arts approaches and outlined that 'we need a statement from the Department of Health at the highest level giving permission to chief executives of PCTs and hospital trusts to spend money on the arts in healthcare and otherwise legitimising support for the arts as part of mainstream NHS and social services activity. We need best practice guidance from the department but, most importantly, we need a speech by the Secretary of State, Alan Johnson, energetically promulgated throughout the NHS that decisively raises the status of the arts in healthcare.'

A full transcript of the debate can be found at: www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80306-gc0005.htm

A special edition of Health Care Analysis: An International Journal of Health Care Philosophy and Policy, expected Autumn 2009, will focus on ideas and challenges regarding the cultivation of creativity within the health and care workforce. The journal will include a range of papers from participants, academics, health and arts practitioners, who took part in the Creativity and the Health and Care Workforce Research Project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (co-funded by the ESRC, DTI and the Arts Council of England) as part of their Nature of Creativity research programme. Expected content includes papers on use of narrative, empathetic imagination, risk, rights and preparedness for creativity.

For more information about the programme please visit: www.rhul.ac.uk/Drama/creativityandhealth/

For more information about the special edition journal please contact: E.Brodzinski@rhul.ac.uk

A new website has been launched making poem posters easily accessible and downloadable for use by health and care organisations. Poems for..., (formerly known as Poems for the Waiting Room) has an online resource of contemporary and bilingual poems, developed with the help of a number of poets, and the endorsement of Poet Laureate Andrew Motion who expressed admiration for "Poems for..." above all for its primary vision that good poetry belongs in the everyday and the everywhere, and can offer vital connection across ethnic and cultural difference.

To access the poems please contact: www.hyphen-21.org/publicsite/poems-for

Following a review of the Awards for All England programme, changes are to be made to the small grants scheme’s existing format when it comes to an end in March 2009.

Currently Awards for All England is a joint Lottery grants programme supported by Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England. From 1 April 2009 each of the lottery distributors supporting the scheme will have their own small grants programmes up and running.

For more information about the changes visit: www.awardsforall.org.uk/england/index.html and www.lotteryfunding.org.uk