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Musings on "Creativity for Wellness" in Arts in Healthcare and Community in Ireland today

.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.

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