Posted on: 12 December 2019
Arts-based therapy is flourishing across a large part of Yorkshire as healthcare providers and those with mental health illnesses recognise the value of an alternative approach.
The approach uses the arts as a conduit to improve health and puts people at the centre of their recovery. It also helps people stay mentally healthy and can reduce the length of hospital stays.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, a collaboration of clinical commissioning groups, hospital trusts, local authorities, patient group, universities, NHS bodies and the voluntary/charity sector, is championing arts-based and community therapies across the area it serves.
Mental health services in the six areas covered by the partnership, Bradford district and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, are to receive a total additional investment of £70m a year by 2023/24. This follows an additional £2.3bn national NHS commitment to mental health services by 2023/24.
The aim by 2024 is cut the life expectancy gap between people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism and the rest of the population by 10%.
Key to achieving this ambition is social prescribing, a practice where health and care partners refer people to support in the community to improve health and wellbeing.
Arts-based therapy is one type of social prescribing and uses different art forms to bring about healing, growth and change. Using a combination of music, drama, movement, dance, imagery, poetry, visual art and storytelling – it supports recovery, gives people choice in how their illnesses are addressed and tackles social isolation. Taking a holistic approach can also help meet major challenges facing health and social care including ageing, long-term conditions, loneliness and mental health.
A two-year inquiry led by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (2019) stated in its Creative Health report that the arts can keep us well, aid our recovery and support longer lives better lived. Taking a holistic approach can also help meet major challenges facing health and social care including ageing, long-term conditions, loneliness and mental health.
Across the area, health providers are embracing arts-based therapy and through West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are sharing new ways of working.
One of the newest initiatives in the region is Leeds Arts, Health and Wellbeing network (LAHWN) which was set up earlier this year to enable arts, health and care sectors to work together.
Leeds Recovery College also launched in 2019 and since September has delivered more than 30 workshops and courses. Many more are planned for 2020 and courses are designed and delivered by people with a lived experience of mental health challenges in partnership with health professionals, education providers and trainers. You can self-refer to Leeds Recovery College regardless of diagnosis and the course timetable is available online.
Dr Sara Munro, CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said:
"The evidence is clear to see; lots of people find being creative really helps their mental health, whether it is art, music or dance – the list is endless. Meeting new people, learning new things and having something to do, not only helps to rebuild people’s lives, it just as importantly lets them know they are not alone."
In Bradford, an award winning bi-annual festival of arts and music is organised by Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust. Its Lynfest event showcases a range of live performances from people accessing mental health hospital services, alongside local performers and community-based art groups. The events are planned and managed by those who receive care, with support from the Trust’s occupational health team.
In the community, the Care Trust’s Champions Show the Way service was established in 2009, and has 150 volunteer community health champions across Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven. It provides a range of activities to almost 1,700 people every year.
Bradford is proving a catalyst for creative recovery. The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance is a sector-support organisation for the cultural sector, funded by Arts Council England. Earlier this year, the alliance set up the first national Creativity and Wellbeing Week, and is planning another event in May 2020 in partnership with the BBC Get Creative Festival, Age of Creativity Festival, and The Mental Health Foundation mental health awareness week.
Brent Kilmurray, Chief Executive of Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, said:
"There’s clear evidence of how art therapy benefits both mental and physical wellbeing, and can build self-esteem, alongside more traditional services. Our community-based creative groups also help build social networks and reduce social isolation, and we’ve got lots of examples where they’ve had a really positive impact on people, often giving them the confidence to start their own creative groups to benefit others."
In Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, Creative Minds is developing community partnerships and co-funding creative projects across the areas served by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, as well as in the Trust’s forensic services.
Since its launch in November 2011, Creative Minds has delivered more than 150 creative projects in partnership with over 50 community organisations benefiting more than 4000 people.
The same NHS Trust has seen the development of Spirit in Mind, a faith-based initiative which provides awareness and training sessions on mental wellbeing across its communities.
These include good neighbour sessions, debt counselling, befriending groups, bereavement meetings and groups to tackle loneliness and homelessness.
In Calderdale, the health, culture and voluntary sectors are working together to help people to ‘Live a Larger Life’ through access to visual and performing arts, crafts, dance, literature, singing and more.
Members of Calderdale’s creative sector are already helping to support people with dementia, learning disabilities, autism, and those with mental health issues to improve their wellbeing, reduce social isolation and engender a sense of community and belonging.
Rob Webster, CEO for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust and CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership said:
"The therapeutic value of art is an asset we must use. A partnership between arts organisations and health organisations has the power to improve people’s wellbeing enormously. Through our partnership programmes in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, we know we can both save and make lives better. Working together give us the opportunity to share and spread good ways of working which importantly helps people to live a long, happy and healthy life. This is after all what we are all about."
Debs Teale, Engagement and Involvement Coordinator, at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust, transformed her life through arts-based therapies. Debs said:
"I’ve been in the mental health system from the age of eight. I was on 21 tablets a day and bed-bound for a lot of the time and my children were my carers. I was told this was the best my life was going to be so I took an overdose. I wanted to end my life. I couldn’t see any way forward and I thought that was the only answer to my mental health problems. I was referred by the Crisis team to see a psychologist and while I was sat in the psychology waiting room, I saw a leaflet. I’d never done art before and I don’t know why I picked the leaflet up. I went along and that’s the day my life changed. I started to do art, started to gain confidence, started to gain ability, people were actually talking to me, not at me. People were asking me what do I want, how do I want things to be?"
Debbie has now sold more 178 paintings and exhibited her art at Canary Wharf in London.
"I do talks all over the world about my journey," she added. "From one of the talks I was nominated to go for tea with the Queen. So not only has this improved my life, I’m off medication, no longer using mental health services and now I work for Creative Minds (South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust). ‘If we can encourage something that has little to no side effects compared to traditional mental health medication, then we should. It is not going to be suitable for everyone and there is sometimes a class-based stigma wrongly attached to the arts but it really does have the power to empower and transform. As a way of encouraging long term recovery, arts based therapy and social prescribing should be the first intervention in mental health. Not only does it work but it is fantastic too."