Arts and Health Creative Prescribing delivers promising results

An Arts and Health Creative Prescribing Discovery Programme exploring the potential of creative prescribing to support physical and mental health has delivered promising results in Hywel Dda University Health Board (UHB).

Social prescribing services focus on helping patients with health and social challenges who might feel isolated and require non-clinical support. The programme aimed at creating a nurturing environment for the growth of arts on prescription across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and Ceredigion. Running from July 2022 to March 2024, over 866 participants took part, including patients, people from communities and healthcare staff and 18 artists.

Activities ranged from artists working ‘in residence’ within healthcare teams and Creative Prescribing Cafes which served as hubs for discussion and engagement.

The programme, funded by the Arts Council of Wales, Hywel Dda UHB and Tywi Taf Cluster funding was led by Hywel Dda’s Arts and Health team in partnership with Hywel Dda UHB’s Public Health Team, Public Health Wales, the Social Prescribing Community of Practice, Health Education Improvement Wales, and six arts partners; Span Arts, People Speak Up, Arts4wellbeing, Haul, Arts Care Gofal Celf and Wales Arts Health and Wellbeing Network.

Kathryn Lambert, Hywel Dda UHB Arts in Health Coordinator, explained the importance of this initiative, saying, “Creative prescribing is a way of connecting people with the arts to help people to better manage their own health and well-being.

It’s built on the growing evidence base that activities such as singing, dancing, craft or reading a good book boosts our mood, connects us with others, and improves our well-being.

We’ve been asking what’s needed to better connect people with the arts in their local communities through a series of cafes, residencies and projects.”

Frank Farrer from Pembrokeshire FRAME spoke about the impact the programme had on addressing mental health challenges: “We’re looking at people that maybe having issues with something that’s been neglected for a long time across the whole of the UK, like mental health issues.

Even people just feeling really low and depressed, anxious about just stepping outside the doorstep.  Bringing the arts in, teaching the little things or sitting down like we’ve done today, have fun cutting things out, sticking on pieces of paper.  It brings together people who might not necessarily spoken to each other for a while or have never met anybody.”

The programme also successfully connected professionals across the arts, health, and third sectors, creating new opportunities for collaboration. Di Ford, an artist from Span Arts, described the transformative effect of participation, noting, “By the end of it, it’s like they have a sense of empowerment or achievement that they’ve created something, it builds confidence, and it can build self-esteem and things as well.”

Dr. Cath Jenkins, GP and Academic Fellow at Swansea University, echoed these sentiments, saying, “We’ve had some really positive feedback from people that they’ve enjoyed, that they’ve had physical benefits, but also that they’ve felt that it’s been good for their mental wellbeing and that they’ve made friends and social links through it.”

The programme has been evaluated independently by Hywel Dda UHB’s TriTech Institute and Innovation team. According to the report, health professionals noted an increased awareness and understanding of the benefits of arts in healthcare, with 100% of junior doctors attending training events reporting an increase in their knowledge of the evidence supporting arts in health. Additionally, at the creative connections event, 93% of attendees stated they learned more about arts in health for their clients.

The evaluation also highlighted several key learnings, such as the complexity of implementing creative prescribing, the challenges of data collection, and the need for sustained funding to support future arts and health initiatives.

Based on these insights, Hywel Dda UHB has outlined four crucial recommendations: to foster cross-sector collaboration across the health board, to develop a health-board-wide pilot arts referral programme, to explore and overcome barriers to effective data capture, and to secure funding for larger-scale research and evaluation activities.

A video has also been released alongside this report, capturing the essence of the programme and featuring the voices of participants and professionals. This video serves as a powerful testament to the potential of creative prescribing in transforming lives and it can be viewed here.

Read the case study story published on the Wales Arts Health and Wellbeing Knowledge Bank here: https://wahwn.cymru/knowledge-bank/creative-prescribing-discovery-programme-

To know more about Hywel Dda Arts and Health Charter click here: https://hduhb.nhs.wales/arts-and-health-charter/