National News

The Trustees of the National Network for Arts in Health met last month and have made the formal decision to close the Company and Charity. It is expected that this process will take around three to four months to complete. ACE has led a consultation process with the sector regarding the need for and role of a national body to represent arts in health and is now likely to reveal the results of this consultation.

LAHF will continue to take part in discussions with ACE and with other bodies nationally about this process and will keep members up to speed with developments.

Arts Council England is currently consulting with the arts in health sector in an attempt to establish the need for a national body to fill the gap left when the National Network for Arts in Health (NNAH) was forced to cease trading last summer. The consultation process is designed to work out the role of any such future organisation and suggestions are also being sought for existing organisations or networks which could take on some or all of the NNAH’s remit. A public meeting took place in January to ascertain the views of the sector. Background papers for this meeting can be found here.

Arts Council England has launched a new dance and health strategy which makes the case for promoting dance as a health measure. It offers a range of case studies and a list of contacts on a region by region basis.
w: www.artscouncil.org.uk

A new £30m venue looking at the links between medicine and the arts is being created in central London by the Wellcome Trust. The six-storey venue will house some 1,500 exhibits, ranging from Napoleon’s toothbrush to recent work by Mark Quinn and Christine Borland, across three galleries. The Wellcome Collection will use contemporary and experimental techniques to encourage visitors to consider issues of science, health and human identity through the ages. The building will also house the Wellcome Library, a café and members’ club.
w: library.wellcome.ac.uk

A pilot project in South West England is taking professional musicians into GP waiting rooms in an attempt to soothe patients’ tempers and reduce violence and aggression towards NHS staff. The project is the result of a partnership between Live Music Now and the Bristol and South West Primary Care Trust and is being trialled before being rolled out nationally. Recent statistics hold that 44% of doctors report having been threatened and 22% assaulted while carrying out their work.

An arts and health stand-up comedy project targeted at promoting healthier lifestyles to adult men has been included as a case study in a guide for men to achieve and maintain mental wellbeing. Leicester Comedy Festival’s award winning ‘Hurt Until It Laughs’ stand-up comedy project is included in the newly published Haynes ‘Brain Manual’. Leicester Comedy Festival’s current project, titled ‘Doctor, Doctor!’ includes a variety of activities as well as a comprehensive research study on attitudes towards arts and health amongst health professionals. The news coincided with the release of The Workers Index, a bi-annual analysis of feelings and attitudes towards work, which found that health service workers are the gloomiest staff in the public services. According to the research, 38% of health workers ‘‘doubt senior management knows where it is going’’.
w: www.haynes.co.uk; e: info@comedy-festival.co.uk