With this week giving focus to mental health through World Mental Health Day, an award-winning arts initiative to improve NHS staff wellbeing post-pandemic, a project to support children experiencing mental ill health, and an annual youth arts festival are among the successes of a three-year partnership designed to boost mental health in Wales.
Arts and Minds, jointly funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Baring Foundation since 2021, has provided funding and support to each of the country’s seven local health boards for creative wellbeing projects that tackle local mental health priorities.
At Swansea Bay University Health Board (UHB), the award-winning Sharing HOPE project enabled more than 1,500 NHS staff members who had experienced trauma or mental ill health to use poetry and other art forms as part of their recovery process. Further west, children and young people known to Hywel Dda UHB’s Specialist Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service used animation, mixed media art and aerial movement to reduce stress, increase resilience and boost their recovery. And in Cardiff and the Vale UHB, a youth arts festival proved so successful it has since become an annual event.
As the programme concludes its third year of funding, the impact of these arts projects on individuals’ lives is undeniable says Liz Clarke, Interim Programme Manager at the Arts Council of Wales: “We know there are no short-term fixes to the challenges surrounding mental health in Wales. It’s an issue that one programme alone cannot solve. But Arts & Minds is a powerful example of the role the arts can play in supporting our wellbeing.
“Common feedback from the health boards has been that participants report feeling more relaxed, safe, and creatively engaged. Many have built new friendships and support networks, and found confidence in expressing their emotions through art. In some cases, creative projects have been integrated into ongoing mental health services, ensuring their continuation.”
NHS staff have also benefited. Some reported their relationships with patients have been strengthened and others disclosed that they felt less likely to leave their jobs due to the support offered to them through creative interventions.
Partnerships across sectors
There is a mounting body of evidence to confirm the positive impact of the arts and creativity on our physical and mental health and wellbeing. For more than six years, a memorandum of understanding between the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh NHS Confederation has helped drive greater collaboration between the two sectors in Wales and pioneered new approaches to arts, health and wellbeing that are being watched with interest globally.
Nesta Lloyd-Jones, Assistant Director at the Welsh NHS Confederation, says: “To respond to the monumental challenges facing the health and care system in Wales and to support staff wellbeing, we must continue to think more holistically and broadly than traditional, clinical treatment of ill health. The Arts & Minds programme provides powerful evidence around how the arts and being creative have a central role to play in supporting people’s mental health and wellbeing now and in the future.
“Across the health and care system there’s a growing understanding of the huge impact participation in the arts can have on patient and staff experience, supporting mental health and wider wellbeing outcomes, countering inequalities and increasing social engagement.”
Photo: Swansea Bay Arts & Minds. Credit: Swansea Bay UHB Arts and Minds