Creative Health in Systems
The People, Priorities and Challenges Shaping Integration
Will be published approx. on 19. August 2026
296 pages
E-Book
978-1-040-56181-2 (ISBN)
Description
Creative Health in Systems offers an accessible yet engaging guide to how arts, creativity and culture can practically integrate into healthcare systems across England, demonstrating not only what is happening across the system today, but how readers can play an active role in shaping the next phase of Creative Health integration.
Across 54 short chapters, the book brings together health leaders, creative practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and lived experience voices to comprehensively map how Creative Health is unfolding. It explores the diverse stakeholders and networks involved in these processes, examining how they work together to improve health outcomes. Readers are guided through the key strategic touchpoints where Creative Health is gaining traction, including public health, population health management, neighbourhood healthcare, mental health, hospital admissions, staff wellbeing and retention, children and young people, and creative ageing. The book also confronts the field's key challenges, including short-term funding, quality co-production, governance complexity, and persistent inequalities. Chapters share a range of perspectives on planning and evaluating Creative Health provision, before offering a dedicated mapping section with practical tools, enabling readers to visualise their own systems and better understand where creative activity can make meaningful impact within their practice.
Combining systems insight with grounded examples, Creative Health in Systems provides an authoritative yet highly practical resource that can be dipped into on commutes or between busy moments. This is essential reading for cultural practitioners aiming to work with the health sector, healthcare professionals looking to activate creative assets, and Creative Health academics wanting to anchor their research in practical application.
Across 54 short chapters, the book brings together health leaders, creative practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and lived experience voices to comprehensively map how Creative Health is unfolding. It explores the diverse stakeholders and networks involved in these processes, examining how they work together to improve health outcomes. Readers are guided through the key strategic touchpoints where Creative Health is gaining traction, including public health, population health management, neighbourhood healthcare, mental health, hospital admissions, staff wellbeing and retention, children and young people, and creative ageing. The book also confronts the field's key challenges, including short-term funding, quality co-production, governance complexity, and persistent inequalities. Chapters share a range of perspectives on planning and evaluating Creative Health provision, before offering a dedicated mapping section with practical tools, enabling readers to visualise their own systems and better understand where creative activity can make meaningful impact within their practice.
Combining systems insight with grounded examples, Creative Health in Systems provides an authoritative yet highly practical resource that can be dipped into on commutes or between busy moments. This is essential reading for cultural practitioners aiming to work with the health sector, healthcare professionals looking to activate creative assets, and Creative Health academics wanting to anchor their research in practical application.
Reviews / Votes
'This book is an invaluable reference, planning tool and introduction to an increasingly complex ecology for those working across Creative Health. Grounded in an understanding of the realities faced by artists/facilitators, cultural organisations, public health teams and health systems, it balances empathy with clarity, application and breadth. By bringing together perspectives from across the sector, it offers a genuinely holistic and collaborative way forward.'Regan McDonald, Public Health Research Officer, Creative Health Producer, Ikon Gallery and Birmingham City Council
'In this timely book, Hearst and contributing authors remind us that creative health development, delivery and evaluation involves collaborative working rather than silos, and offers helpful strategies and ways for health, arts and those benefiting from creative health interventions to communicate, co-produce and shape the field together.'
Dr Roshni Beeharry, Writing for Wellbeing & Personal Development Facilitator, Founder of Storied Selves and Lecturer, Institute of Neurology, University College London
'This book powerfully demonstrates that the true value of cross-disciplinary collaboration between arts, culture, heritage, and health lies in creating collaborative environments, where diversity of thought, trust-based relationships, and community engagement drive real change. By bridging sectors, we unlock richer evidence, more joined-up intelligence, and smarter resource allocation, all while fostering a new language of partnership.'
David Moss, Locality Director, One Weston and Woodspring, NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 Line drawings, color; 5 Halftones, color; 15 Illustrations, color
ISBN-13
978-1-040-56181-2 (9781040561812)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 08/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€44.00
Not yet published
Book
approx. 08/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€185.50
Not yet published
Person
Jane Hearst is a Doctor of Creative Health. She works across the field to support strategy, policy and network development, media production and knowledge mobilisation, and systems research and training.
Content
Introduction by Jane Hearst
Part 1 Stakeholders and Networks
1. Creative Health Practitioners
Jane Hearst
2. Social Prescribing
Robert Dean and Sarah Paine
3. Occupational Therapy
Jemma Channing
4. Nursing
Marion Lynch
5. General Practice
Amal Lad
6. Local Authorities
Rose Farrington and Sarah Lee
7. NHS Trusts
Helen Billings
8. Integrated Care Boards
Conni Rosewarne and Flora Faith-Kelly
9. VCFSE and the Third Sector
Jane Hearst
10. Creative Health Boards
Chris Dayson, Lucy Robertshaw, Eleanor Lockley, Eleanor Holding, Sarah Clough, Meg Barclay, and Susan Hampshaw
11. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health
Alan Howarth, Simon Opher, Alexandra Coulter, and Hannah Waterson
12. National Centre for Creative Health
Jayne Howard, Hannah Waterson, and Alexandra Coulter
13. NCCH Creative Health Champions
Alexis Butt and Jane Povey
14. Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Rachel Marsden, Victoria Hume and Rachel Howfield Massey
15. National Arts in Hospitals Network
Laura Waters
16. Arts Council England
Hollie Smith-Charles
17. National Portfolio Organisations and Other Large Cultural Institutions
Julienne Mwanza and Kathleen Wright
18. Cultural Compacts
Susan Jane Clarke, Paul Gossage, and Clare Purcell
19. Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network
Laura Bailey
20. Grassroots Arts Networks
Laura Breakwell
21. Creative Health Networks
Claire Hickey, Amabel Mortimer, Rachel Howfield Massey, and Sallie Louise Varnam
22. Research and Policy Partnerships
Jane Hearst
23. Lived Experience Experts and Community Champions
Danny Sherwood and Pippa Jones
24. Members of the Public
Jane Hearst
Part 2 Strategies
25. Population Health Management
Laura French
26. Public Health
Justin Varney-Bennett and Rhys Boyer
27. Local Health and Cultural Strategies
Jane Povey and Jane Hearst
28. Mental Health
Ananta Dave and Jane Hearst
29. Hospital Admissions
Jane Hearst
30. NHS Staff Wellbeing and Retention
Laura Waters
31. Children and Young People, Part 1: The Early Years
Bertha Ochieng
32. Children and Young People, Part 2: Youth Participation
Jenny Goodwin and Jacob Richard Brown
33. Creative Ageing
Helen Fountain, David Ian Cutler, Farrell Renowden, and Anne Hughes
34. Creative Health Strategies
Julie McCarthy
Part 3 Challenges
35. The Cost of Short-Termism: Funding, Precarity, and Barriers to Access
Elaine Ryan-McNeill and Simon Baines
36. Co-Production and Social Inclusion
Elaine Ryan-McNeill and Bethany Ellen Calverley
37. Systems Governance
Joanne Ryder
38. Creative Health for All: Confronting the Inequality Within
Thahmina Begum
Part 4 Planning and Evaluation
39. More Than Metrics: Capturing the True Value of Creative Health
Robert Dean
40. The Creative Health Partnerships Framework: Combining Primary Research and Open Data to Evaluate Creative Health Interventions
Jay Rowe
41. Collating NHS Data from Your Creative Health Provision
Hannah Gorf and Felicity Penn
42. The Need for a Critical Perspective on Arts and Health Research and Reviews
Stephen Clift and Katarzyna Grebosz-Haring
43. Clumsy Evaluation
Timothy Senior and Karen Gray
Part 5 Mapping
44. Artistic Directories
Jane Hearst
45. Mind Maps by Specialism
Jane Hearst
46. Network Narrative Overviews
Jane Hearst
47. Geographic Maps: Heat Coverage and Visual Logging
Jane Hearst
48. Personal Data Visualisations
Jane Hearst
49. Journey Mapping and Value Streams
Jane Hearst
50. Impact Mapping and Theories of Change
Jane Hearst
51. Network Analysis
Jane Hearst
52. Mapping Case Studies
Kelly Donaldson, Elaine Ryan-McNeill, Gail Faragher, and Rachel Marsden
53. Connecting Creative Health in Systems: The Logic of Social Network Mapping
Jane Hearst
Index
Part 1 Stakeholders and Networks
1. Creative Health Practitioners
Jane Hearst
2. Social Prescribing
Robert Dean and Sarah Paine
3. Occupational Therapy
Jemma Channing
4. Nursing
Marion Lynch
5. General Practice
Amal Lad
6. Local Authorities
Rose Farrington and Sarah Lee
7. NHS Trusts
Helen Billings
8. Integrated Care Boards
Conni Rosewarne and Flora Faith-Kelly
9. VCFSE and the Third Sector
Jane Hearst
10. Creative Health Boards
Chris Dayson, Lucy Robertshaw, Eleanor Lockley, Eleanor Holding, Sarah Clough, Meg Barclay, and Susan Hampshaw
11. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health
Alan Howarth, Simon Opher, Alexandra Coulter, and Hannah Waterson
12. National Centre for Creative Health
Jayne Howard, Hannah Waterson, and Alexandra Coulter
13. NCCH Creative Health Champions
Alexis Butt and Jane Povey
14. Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Rachel Marsden, Victoria Hume and Rachel Howfield Massey
15. National Arts in Hospitals Network
Laura Waters
16. Arts Council England
Hollie Smith-Charles
17. National Portfolio Organisations and Other Large Cultural Institutions
Julienne Mwanza and Kathleen Wright
18. Cultural Compacts
Susan Jane Clarke, Paul Gossage, and Clare Purcell
19. Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network
Laura Bailey
20. Grassroots Arts Networks
Laura Breakwell
21. Creative Health Networks
Claire Hickey, Amabel Mortimer, Rachel Howfield Massey, and Sallie Louise Varnam
22. Research and Policy Partnerships
Jane Hearst
23. Lived Experience Experts and Community Champions
Danny Sherwood and Pippa Jones
24. Members of the Public
Jane Hearst
Part 2 Strategies
25. Population Health Management
Laura French
26. Public Health
Justin Varney-Bennett and Rhys Boyer
27. Local Health and Cultural Strategies
Jane Povey and Jane Hearst
28. Mental Health
Ananta Dave and Jane Hearst
29. Hospital Admissions
Jane Hearst
30. NHS Staff Wellbeing and Retention
Laura Waters
31. Children and Young People, Part 1: The Early Years
Bertha Ochieng
32. Children and Young People, Part 2: Youth Participation
Jenny Goodwin and Jacob Richard Brown
33. Creative Ageing
Helen Fountain, David Ian Cutler, Farrell Renowden, and Anne Hughes
34. Creative Health Strategies
Julie McCarthy
Part 3 Challenges
35. The Cost of Short-Termism: Funding, Precarity, and Barriers to Access
Elaine Ryan-McNeill and Simon Baines
36. Co-Production and Social Inclusion
Elaine Ryan-McNeill and Bethany Ellen Calverley
37. Systems Governance
Joanne Ryder
38. Creative Health for All: Confronting the Inequality Within
Thahmina Begum
Part 4 Planning and Evaluation
39. More Than Metrics: Capturing the True Value of Creative Health
Robert Dean
40. The Creative Health Partnerships Framework: Combining Primary Research and Open Data to Evaluate Creative Health Interventions
Jay Rowe
41. Collating NHS Data from Your Creative Health Provision
Hannah Gorf and Felicity Penn
42. The Need for a Critical Perspective on Arts and Health Research and Reviews
Stephen Clift and Katarzyna Grebosz-Haring
43. Clumsy Evaluation
Timothy Senior and Karen Gray
Part 5 Mapping
44. Artistic Directories
Jane Hearst
45. Mind Maps by Specialism
Jane Hearst
46. Network Narrative Overviews
Jane Hearst
47. Geographic Maps: Heat Coverage and Visual Logging
Jane Hearst
48. Personal Data Visualisations
Jane Hearst
49. Journey Mapping and Value Streams
Jane Hearst
50. Impact Mapping and Theories of Change
Jane Hearst
51. Network Analysis
Jane Hearst
52. Mapping Case Studies
Kelly Donaldson, Elaine Ryan-McNeill, Gail Faragher, and Rachel Marsden
53. Connecting Creative Health in Systems: The Logic of Social Network Mapping
Jane Hearst
Index
