Arts in health: considering language from an educational perspective in the United States

Abstract

Background: There has been tremendous progress linking the arts to health over the past five decades in the United States. An academic discipline has been clearly established through the development of programs at accredited universities, a growing body of research and dedicated field journals. However, significant inconsistencies in the use of language to reference the discipline pose challenges for practitioners, educators, policy-makers, service users and the public, and may impede progress.

Methods: This descriptive study investigated the language used to reference the discipline informed by literature review, technical examination of language, a field survey and round-table dialog among educators.

Results: The literature review revealed “arts and health” as the most common term used, which also was the preferred term for the greatest number of survey respondents (26%), followed by “arts, health and well-being” (22%) and “arts in health” (21%), confirming a general lack of consensus. Technical examination of language identified certain terms or phases as problematic. Dialog among round-table participants yielded the recommendation for “arts in health” as the term that, for educational purposes, may best describe the overarching discipline and be inclusive of both health care and community-based practices.

Conclusions: A recommendation is made for use of the term “arts in health” to reference the discipline in educational programs in the U.S.

Keywords:

• Arts in health
• arts and health
• arts in health care
• arts in medicine
• terminology
• language

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the generous support for the project provided by the Pabst Charitable Foundation for the Arts and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, as well as the vision and contributions of Margery Pabst to the project. The authors also acknowledge the interest, time and depth of insight generously extended by those who participated in the survey worldwide, as well as the educators and stakeholders who attended and contributed to the roundtable. In addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge the work of Max Helgemo, University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine Research Associate, Kathryn Mason, University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine Program Assistant and the following graduate assistants and research assistants: Aurora Viera, Camilo Reina Munoz, Camya Robinson, Jessica Lindquist, Julia Acker, Juliette Eskinazi, Kyria Louis-Charles, Liz Bouton, Melanie Parks, Samantha Matott, Victoria Trieu and Grace Oh.