Arts in Hospital is a small, charitable organisation based at Dorset County Hospital. We aim to enhance the healing

environment, raise patients' spirits and give pleasure to all who are concerned with their welfare.

Our core objectives are to support patients and staff through therapeutic art projects that have medical and social

benefit, engage the wider community on creative projects based on health and well-being outcomes like health

promotion, programme temporary exhibitions/maintain a permanent collection of life affirming artwork shown

throughout the hospital and satellite facilities to create a healing environment.

Contribution of the arts to health and emotional wellbeing

The National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing’s (www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk) Charter states that

the ‘arts, creativity and imagination are agents of wellness: they help keep the individual resilient, aid recovery and

foster a flourishing society.’ The field of arts, health and wellbeing encompasses a broad range of practice and

research. There is a growing acknowledgement that the arts and culture are integral to the social determinants of

health and wellbeing and can contribute to the prevention of ill-health as well as to recovery. Some of the most

compelling evidence comes from the personal stories of individuals whose lives have been transformed by the

experience of arts and health programmes. Arts and health strives to give these individuals a voice and to enable

them to be heard by decision makers and clinicians. The arts also contribute to creating a culture within health and

social care that is more supportive, empowering, enlightened, personal and humane.

Public Health

The Royal Society for Public Health (www.rsph.org.uk) believes that there is a need to position the strong inter-

relationship between arts and individual and community health as one of the key building blocks towards

sustainable, resilient communities and that there is also an art to fostering our wellbeing. Access to and involvement

in creative activity and the arts in all its forms is an important component in both the overall health and wellbeing of

society and for individuals within it. Improving population health via community-focussed interventions which can be

low profile, small scale and imaginative in their funding but provide extensive outreach, particularly in their support

for hard-to-reach communities.

Primary Care

In the UK, Arts On Prescription services have emerged as a prominent form of social prescribing. They are primarily

targeted at people in the community with mental health issues or those who present in general practice with

problems originating from socioeconomic deprivation or long-term psychosocial issues which do not benefit from

medical treatment. The Artlift scheme in Gloucestershire has been shown to reduce attendance at GP surgeries and

even impacted on hospital admissions with a reduction in overall spend to the NHS of 27%.

Healthcare Environments

Pioneered by Chelsea and Westminster hospital and Arts for Health Manchester there is now an established track

record of arts and health programmes in hospitals, often centred on capital build and the environment. Arts and

humanities programmes have been shown to have a measured and positive effect on inpatients which include:

• Inducing positive physiological and psychological changes in clinical outcomes • Reducing drug consumption • Shortening length of hospital stay • Promoting better doctor-patient relationships • Improving mental healthcare

Medical Training

Changing philosophies in the training of medical practitioners have underpinned the development and expansion of

medical humanities programmes in medical schools across the UK. Ways in which the arts contribute are:

• Evidence that listening to self-selected music increases mental task performance in surgeons • Music in operating theatres to create a less stressful environment • Visual arts help in developing the observational skills of the medical practitioner and three-dimensional

thinking • The arts increase awareness in dealing with illness and bereavement, as well as strengthening students’

confidence in their own practice • Arts and humanities in nursing and medical education led to an increased capacity in students for critical

analysis and understanding of illness and suffering

Still from Blood Makes Noise, 2014 – a film making project with dialysis patients at DCH

www.dchft.nhs.uk/about/arts Artsinhospital is now on