A constructive-critical response to Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing (July 2017) by the All–Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing

ABSTRACT

The recent report from the United Kingdom (UK) All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing is receiving widespread publicity across the media. Newspaper articles and social media posts espouse the benefits and importance of employing creative arts within the health domain, citing the report as proof of this. The report is inclusive of the entire range of arts practices, while its recommendations relate in the most part to UK policy and systems. The focus of this article is specific to visual arts practices and art therapy (art-for-health), but may have relevance across arts modalities and approaches (arts and health). This article questions the approach to the evidence taken in the report, and highlights the need for rigour, balance and impartiality in conducting research and presenting evidence. A case is made for the use of formal systematic reviews as appropriate ways to develop the evidence base. Another suggestion is a request for more explicit consideration of the ideological commitments underpinning beliefs about purpose and value within art therapy and the wider arts and health arena.

KEYWORDS:

• Art therapy
• arts and health
• wellbeing
• well-being
• systematic review
• Creative Health
• All-Party Parliamentary Group

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Susan Hogan and Professor David Sheffield, for their assistance with language editing and proofreading as well as their ongoing support and supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kate Phillips is a PhD candidate at the University of Derby, Derby, UK, supervised by Professor Susan Hogan and Professor David Sheffield. She gained a bachelor's degree in visual art from Lancaster University and a master's degree in art psychotherapy from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her work within health and social care spans acute psychiatry, primary health care and humanitarian settlement in the UK and Australia.

Kate's current PhD research is on the role of art-based interventions to support the well-being of refugees and asylum seekers. She is interested in understanding whether the non-verbal and symbolic potential for expression can provide a unique form of intervention where factors such as language, culture and trauma may influence efficacy and acceptability.

Through conducting a mixed-methods systematic review, inclusive of art therapy and other art-for-health initiatives, she has become increasingly interested in promoting scientific rigour within this interdisciplinary area. Kate is the Early Career Researcher representative on the committee for the Royal Society for Public Health Special Interest Group in Arts and Health.