.This is an area I have a big interest in, having been involved in both the arts - as an artist and also in healthcare - as a nurse for most of my adult life.
We are all creative
beings, and when we connect with our unique creative source, we become more
“whole”, helping bring together our essential connection of body, mind and
spirit and thus helping maintain or restore our health.
“Creativity for Wellness”
incorporates all the arts: music, the visual arts, drama, literature, gardening
and movement, to name a few. “Creativity for Wellness” is closely linked with
Arts in Healthcare. This discipline can best be explained as Art for Arts sake,
as it is not considered a therapy as such. For example, art therapists work
closely with psychologists, while Arts in Healthcare offer countless benefits
towards personal and societal wellbeing by simply connecting with our
creativity.
Arts in Healthcare is a
little recognised, but expanding and important area in Ireland today, having
the potential to transform healthcare experiences and societal health through
the Arts. Patients or residents in
hospital situations usually have little say in their own care. Doctors
prescribe drugs, physiotherapists develop exercise programmes, nurses and carers
look after personal needs of patients and the list goes on. Arts in Healthcare can offer time and space
to a patient where they can express their own voice or creativity, and thus
contribute to their healing process. In Ireland, there has been a slow, but
growing acceptance over the past twenty years, of the transformative creative
work which healthcare and community professionals and artists have initiated in
their own spheres of responsibility by introducing art projects. However, it is true that most health professionals and members of community do not have an understanding of the potential benefits of Arts inCommunity and in Healthcare.
Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) provides a
good example of ongoing work in this area. It was the first Centre for Arts and
Health in the Republic of Ireland and opened to the public in the grounds of
University Hospital Waterford in 2009. WHAT supports, and I quote “healthcare
environments and the wider community by providing multi-disciplinary arts
experiences and services and bringing the arts beyond conventional boundaries
into healthcare environments whereby art and artists can thrive and excel in
environments outside of mainstream arts venues and whereby people who might not
ordinarily chose to access the arts can do so.”
“Creativity for
Wellness” plays an important role in this area.