Culture and Wellbeing Local Government: Local Public Health. PHE South West: Informal Briefing Note

Transcription

1 Culture and Wellbeing Local Government: Local Public Health PHE South West: Informal Briefing Note

2 Culture, Health and Wellbeing. About Public Health England Public Health England exists to protect and improve the nation's health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. It does this through world-class science, knowledge and intelligence, advocacy, partnerships and the delivery of specialist public health services. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. Public Health England Wellington House Waterloo Road London SE1 8UG Tel: Facebook: Prepared by: Professor Kevin Elliston, Public Health Consultant in Health Improvement PHE South West Crown copyright 2014 You may re-use this information (excluding logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence v2.0. To view this licence, visit OGL or Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Any enquiries regarding this briefing note should be sent to May

3 Culture, Health and Wellbeing This informal briefing note from PHE South West identifies some of the key links and benefits of engaging with Cultural activities, at a local level, for population health and wellbeing The positive relationship between cultural engagement and health and welling are well documented. The importance of stimulating activities is obvious, and there is hardly any need for medical arguments for attending a theatre, cinema, or sports events, for reading books and periodicals, or for making music. Cultural activity might be thought to increase resistance to a broad spectrum of diseases or be the impetus to start dealing with problems (Bygren, Boinkum, & Johansson, 1996). Local Government has a long track record of developing and sustaining local cultural events and activities for the enjoyment, benefit and education of their local population and according to the All Party Parliamentary Report experiencing arts and culture has demonstrable positive impacts on wellbeing, both directly and indirectly (APPG, 2014). The Arts Council report (Bazalgette, 2014) says, The arts work everywhere in our communities; helping the retired, the marginalised, the lonely and the sick. We arrange dance classes, organise choirs and hand out books. The arts are a critical factor in social engagement. Councils and health providers already know that ensuring access to high quality cultural opportunities boosts mental health, inclusion and happiness. Whilst artists and cultural organisations make a positive difference to people and communities on a daily basis. We need to get better at delivering this message more widely. The development of the Libraries for Health (Fujiwara, Ricky, & Mourato, 2015) and Happy Museums (Happy Museums Project) concept has added a new dimension to health and wellbeing service provision at a local level. Benefits for Local Government s Health and Wellbeing: The Association for Culture and Leisure Officer s (CLOA, 2014) published a commissioning toolkit guide to the role of culture and leisure for improving health and wellbeing and identified the links and benefits of cultural engagement programmes and health and wellbeing. The areas that culture and leisure could contribute to health and wellbeing at a local level included: Child poverty Community Safety Difference in health and life chances Early intervention and prevention Educational attainment 3

4 Good mental health and emotional wellbeing Homelessness Learning disabilities Obesity Physical inactivity Safeguarding children & young people Safeguarding vulnerable adults Smoking cessation Social isolation Substance misuse Supporting families with multiple problems Transition of children into adult services Unemployment and welfare benefits Youth unemployment In 2008, Liverpool City began to explore how arts and culture could tackle health inequalities in the long-term, building on the positive impact and momentum generated from Liverpool s year as European Capital of Culture. In 2010 Liverpool City Council embarked on a year of health and wellbeing, as a springboard from their year as City of Culture (Liverpool Public Health Observatory, 2010). The evaluation showed that: Arts and culture are increasingly accepted aspects of Liverpool s civic life and identity and are a powerful means of engaging communities and fostering creative social interaction. The cultural programme has been a hugely effective means of communicating the aims and vision for the Year of Health and Wellbeing (YOHWB2010) in an accessible and tangible way. The evaluation of the YOHWB2010 s Vision and Objectives recognised the power of the arts as a mechanism for engaging with people experiencing low wellbeing and less likely to engage with health, social and educational opportunities and lifestyles as well as to support those with long-term conditions to manage them better, and to enable everyone to gain skills to provide resilience for the future (Liverpool Public Health Observatory, 2010). Measuring impact Given that Local Authorities invest in cultural programmes for their local populations it is appropriate that the health and wellbeing benefits should be clearly identified. A detailed review of the research by the Arts Council (Arts Council England, 2014) showed that Participation in culture is significantly associated with good health and high life satisfaction. Moreover the evaluation from Liverpool City s Year of Health and Wellbeing showed that with no significant budget it was successful in extracting maximum value from existing resources, and to get participants to unite around a common agenda (Liverpool Public Health Observatory, 2010). It is important to note that large scale population studies would be required to determine if there were causal links between participation in cultural engagement and health and wellbeing. Nonetheless reviews undertaken for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Fujiwara, Kudrna, & Dolan, 2014), the Arts Council England (Arts Council England, 2014), and the Scottish Executive (Scottish Executive, 2014) show clear associations between cultural 4

5 engagement and health improvement. For example the report, Healthy Attendance: The Impact of Cultural Engagement and Sports Participation on Health and Satisfaction with life in Scotland 2013 (The Scottish Government, 2013), identified a positive link with wellbeing, even when other factors including age, economic status, income, area deprivation, education, qualifications, disability or long-standing illness and smoking are accounted for. The influential report by the Royal Society for Public Health, Arts, Health and Wellbeing beyond the Millennium (RSPH, 2013) states Access to and involvement in creative activity and the arts in all its forms is an important component in both the overall health and wellbeing of society and for individuals within it. Whatever setting, whatever stage of the life course, it has an impact. This impact has been evaluated in different ways over time and the body of evidence is substantial. Throughout the RSPH s work in the area of improving population health via community-focused interventions, an often underplayed component, has been the place of arts-led initiatives. These can be low profile, small scale and imaginative in their funding but provide extensive outreach, particularly in their support for hard-to-reach communities. They are often not measured or included as part of a community s asset value. The Arts Council (2014) [Figure 1] review identified the following features of engaging with culture and the real benefits to individual health and wellbeing: Those who had attended a cultural place or event in the previous 12 months were almost 60% more likely to report good health compared to those who had not, and theatre-goers were almost 25% more likely to report good health. Research has evidenced that a higher frequency of engagement with arts and culture is generally associated with a higher level of subjective wellbeing. Engagement in structured arts and culture improves the cognitive abilities of children and young people. A number of studies have reported findings of applied arts and cultural interventions and measured their positive impact on specific health conditions which include dementia, depression and Parkinson s disease. Summary points The academic reviews (Arts Council 2014, DCMS 2014, Scottish Executive 2014) and the development of guidance for local government and partner agencies (RSPH 2013, CLOA 2014) clearly demonstrate the benefits of active engagement in culture for population health and wellbeing. Culture can also play a major role in supporting health and wellbeing, whether it be participating in an activity, visiting a theatre, museum or library, or by contributing as a volunteer. (CLOA, 2014). The financial benfits are well reported wellbeing evidence can not only help target public spending more effectively at improving people s lives, but in many cases has the potential to deliver significant long-term savings by reducing demand on public services (APPG, 2014). 5

6 Figure 1: Health & Wellbeing links to Art and Culture Source: Arts Council England

7 Culture, Health and Wellbeing. References: Works Cited APPG. (2014, September 20). All Party Parliamentary Group Wellbeing Economics Wellbeing in four policy areas. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Arts Council England. (2014). The value of arts and culture to people and society an evidence review. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Arts Council England: Bazalgette, P. (2014). Supportive Statements for 'The role of culture & leisure in improving health &wellbeing'. Arts Council England. Bygren, L. O., Boinkum, B. K., & Johansson, S.-E. (1996). Attendance at cultural events, reading books or periodicals, and making music or singing in a choir as determinants for survival:swedish interview survey of living conditions. BMJ, CLOA. (2014). The role of culture and leisure in improving health and wellbeing. London: Culture and Leisire Officers Association. Fujiwara, D., Kudrna, L., & Dolan, P. (2014). Quantifying and Valuing the Wellbeing Impacts of Culture and Sport. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Department for Culture, Media & Sport: Fujiwara, D., Ricky, L., & Mourato, S. (2015, March 26). The health and wellbeing benefits of public libraries. Retrieved May 05/05/15, 2015, from Arts Council for England: Happy Museums Project. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5th, 2015, from Liverpool Public Health Observatory. (2010, January 1). Liverpool Public Health Observatory. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from 2020 Health and wellbeing: valuationsingledocreadable.pdf RSPH. (2013). Arts, Health and Wellbeing beyond the Millennium. London: RSPH. Scottish Executive. (2014). Quantifying and valuing the wellbeing impacts of sport and culture: Literature Review and Thinkpiece. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Gov.UK: The Scottish Government. (2013). Healthy Attendance: The Impact of Cultural Engagement and Sports Participation on Health and Satisfaction. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from The Scottish Government: 7

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