Describing current initiatives in the use of the arts in health and health care, this book aims to stimulate wider interest in the therapeutic aspects of art. Adopting a practical approach, the contributors aim to help clinical and professional staff at all levels to introduce and develop the use of arts in their own spheres of influence. They show that art must be an integral part of people's lives and stress that environment and the arts can affect the individual and aesthetic stimuli can change mood and behaviour. They examine many aspects of the use of art, including: getting started, whether from scratch or by renovation; involving the community; involving different user groups, such as older people and people with learning disabilities; evaluating the effect of art on patients' recovery and on staff attitude; and examples of projects that have already been set up.
Part One Background and context: the arts in health movement, Peter Senior; art in hospital project, Mary Hooper; the best music in the world - the work of the Council for Music in Hospitals, Sylvia Lindsay; paintings in hospitals, Raphael Eban. Part Two Working with existing buildings: purchasing and commissioning visual art in hospitals, Nigel Weaver; recipe for conversion - working in the psychiatric environment, Peter J. Salmon and Graham A. Moore; projects for specific needs, Gail Bolland. Part Three New buildings: St Mary's Hospital - an alliance of art and interior design, Stephen Nicoll; St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight - arts project, Richard Burton; spaces between buildings in the health-care estate, John Lynch. Part Four The community: Isle of Wight - arts for the hospital and the community, Guy Eades; independent arts, Meryel Boyd; celebratory arts - the arts in primary health care, Tony Blee. Part Five Experience from abroad: creative arts opportunities for hospitals - the UCLA experiment, Devra M. Breslow; building arts in medicine, John Graham- Pole, et al; taking shape - environmental art in health care, Janice B. Palmer and Florence Nash. Part Six Artists in residence: some questions of identity - what is writing in health care?, Fiona Sampson; a painter's perspective, Chris Barrett; writing in hospices, Lynne Alexander. Part Seven The quality of care: reminiscence work with older people in health-care settings - the age-exchange reminiscence project, Bernie Arigho; the Bolingbroke long-term care project, Peter Millard; the arts in a secure environment, Ruth Preece et al. Part Eight Start: the arts and mental health - a personal view, Langley Brown; culinary arts in health, John Rice. Part Nine Evaluation and future persectives: does art heal? An evaluative approach to art in the health service, Malcolm Miles; evaluating the arts in primary care - the effectiveness of the arts in health care, Robin Phillip; the Poole approach to planetree, Ruth Cusson; the tree of learning - a culture for patient-centred care, Malcolm Miles.
Thorough-going survey of arts-for-health projects, ranging from the work of the Liverpool Tate at Ashworth Special Hospital to the `art that heals' programme at Los Angeles Medical Centre.
