This groundbreaking volume offers a theoretical, practical, and evidence-based approach to bridging the gap between service-users, -providers, and -commissioners in order to establish Creative Health as a valued part of healthcare, and a key player in the broader healthcare marketplace.
Offering actionable strategies to strengthen interdisciplinary networks and enrich the Creative Health landscape within modern healthcare systems, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of how economic systems, healthcare philosophy, and societal perceptions shape the uptake and effectiveness of Creative Health services. It outlines the systemic barriers to widespread recognition and identifies how targeted communication can engage both service-users and market forces. Through pragmatic solutions and narrative-based research, chapters present the concept of 'market wellbeing' — a negotiation space that aligns the needs of individuals with healthcare market objectives, fostering stronger connections and sustainability for Creative Health. Ultimately, an entirely novel Creative Health Communication Framework is outlined in the third part of the volume, designed to empower readers with the insights and strategies that can reshape how Creative Health is communicated and valued.
This will be a key volume for scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in Creative Health, creative arts and expressive therapies, and mental health and health psychology more broadly. Creative Health practitioners should also find this volume of use.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part 1: Navigating The Existing Market
Chapter 1 | The Story that Prompted the Creative Health Communication Framework
Chapter 2 | Strategy, Sustainability, and the Context of Capitalism
Chapter 3 | Modern-Day Healthcare and Conceptualisations of Mental Health
Chapter 4 | Categorisation and Power Within the Field of Creative Health
Part 2: User-Centred Design within Research
Chapter 5 | Pragmatism: Using the Market as a Grounding Mechanism Within Research
Chapter 6 | Critical Psychology: Well-Being at the Intersection of the Individual and the Market
Chapter 7 | Narrative Data: Creative Activities That Have Marketability Embedded in Their Design
Chapter 8 | Developing the Creative Health Communication Framework
Part 3: The Creative Health Communication Framework
Stage One: The Threat to Well-Being
Chapter 9 | Internal or External Threats
Chapter 10 | Scale of Impact
Chapter 11 | Well-Being Orientations
Chapter 12 | Absent or Misaligned Resources
Stage Two: The Role of the Service-Provider
Chapter 13 | Identifying or Managing Threats
Chapter 14 | Internal or External Resources
Chapter 15 | Specific or Holistic Goals
Chapter 16 | Resilience Strategies
Stage Three: Contextualising the Service
Chapter 17 | The Distinct Roles of Service-User and Service Provider
Chapter 18 | Single Service or Collaborative Team
Chapter 19 |Trust-Building and Attainability of Healthcare Services
Chapter 20 | Promotional Voices: Scientific, Storytelling, or Poetic
Conclusion
About the Author :
Jane Hearst is a doctor of Creative Health and serves as Midlands Creative Health Associate, National Centre for Creative Health, UK.
Review :
"Whether you are a researcher, practitioner or student, this book helps to decode the language, practice and power dynamics of the interdisciplinary landscape of creative health, its systems and services. Written in the UK context, with global relevance, each chapter makes a thoughtful contribution to further informing the creative health sector, specific to mental wellbeing. Furthermore, the ‘Creative Health Communication Framework’ is a valuable tool, prioritising a user-centred voice and approach, whilst giving confidence to individuals and collaborators driving forward the creative health movement. An absolute asset!"
- Dr Rachel Marsden, Research Fellow in Creative-Public Health (NIHR SPHR Transdisciplinary Fellowship), University of Birmingham and Keele University, and Regional Champion (West Midlands) for the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA)
"As CMO of an Integrated Care System (ICS), I value resources that harness the power of Creative Health especially for prevention and early intervention. The framework offered in this book is a vital tool towards that mission, supporting healthcare professionals - both medical and creative - in navigating the complexities of Creative Health commissioning. Elsewhere, chapters help to demystify health and cultural systems, strengthening the synergy needed to advance Creative Health partnerships. It's an excellent resource for anyone committed to enhancing well-being through the arts within our evolving healthcare landscape."
- Ananta Dave, Chief Medical Officer, Black Country Integrated Care Board, Presidential Lead for retention and wellbeing, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Trustee, Doctors in Distress
"With Creative Health rapidly becoming a widely recognised health intervention, Hearst’s work unpicks the importance of using a universally understood language and active voice to address both terminology, and marketability, for those working in the Creative Health field. This book adds significant and equitable weight to understanding the vital practical, and strategic value, arts and culture contributes to health and social care, and population health promotion."
- Amabel Mortimer, Creative Health facilitator and educator, Arts, Health and Wellbeing Strategic Lead/Programme Director, University of Gloucestershire, Associate Editor International Journal of Art Therapy
"Working within governmental public health, I view this book as an essential guide to Creative Health that can broaden the knowledge base of policymakers and public health leaders with clear, market centred language to support the development of governmental priorities and the tools and language needed to justify funding, integrate arts within healthcare strategies and to promote sustainable and populational wide health benefits of the Creative Health field."
- Rhys Boyer, Senior Public Health Officer, Birmingham City Council Public Health
"Whether you are a researcher, practitioner or student, this book helps to decode the language, practice and power dynamics of the interdisciplinary landscape of creative health, its systems and services. Written in the UK context, with global relevance, each chapter makes a thoughtful contribution to further informing the creative health sector, specific to mental wellbeing. Furthermore, the ‘Creative Health Communication Framework’ is a valuable tool, prioritising a user-centred voice and approach, whilst giving confidence to individuals and collaborators driving forward the creative health movement. An absolute asset!"
- Dr Rachel Marsden, Research Fellow in Creative-Public Health (NIHR SPHR Transdisciplinary Fellowship), University of Birmingham and Keele University, and Regional Champion (West Midlands) for the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA)
"As CMO of an Integrated Care System (ICS), I value resources that harness the power of Creative Health especially for prevention and early intervention. The framework offered in this book is a vital tool towards that mission, supporting healthcare professionals - both medical and creative - in navigating the complexities of Creative Health commissioning. Elsewhere, chapters help to demystify health and cultural systems, strengthening the synergy needed to advance Creative Health partnerships. It's an excellent resource for anyone committed to enhancing well-being through the arts within our evolving healthcare landscape."
- Ananta Dave, Chief Medical Officer, Black Country Integrated Care Board, Presidential Lead for retention and wellbeing, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Trustee, Doctors in Distress
"With Creative Health rapidly becoming a widely recognised health intervention, Hearst’s work unpicks the importance of using a universally understood language and active voice to address both terminology, and marketability, for those working in the Creative Health field. This book adds significant and equitable weight to understanding the vital practical, and strategic value, arts and culture contributes to health and social care, and population health promotion."
- Amabel Mortimer, Creative Health facilitator and educator, Arts, Health and Wellbeing Strategic Lead/Programme Director, University of Gloucestershire, Associate Editor International Journal of Art Therapy
"Working within governmental public health, I view this book as an essential guide to Creative Health that can broaden the knowledge base of policymakers and public health leaders with clear, market centred language to support the development of governmental priorities and the tools and language needed to justify funding, integrate arts within healthcare strategies and to promote sustainable and populational wide health benefits of the Creative Health field."
- Rhys Boyer, Senior Public Health Officer, Birmingham City Council Public Health
