Abstract
This book explores the importance of the arts for health, wellbeing and human flourishing. The book is organised into four parts, with a total of 39 chapters. The four sections are: Creative arts and human health and wellbeing: Setting the scene; National and international developments in practice; Creative arts and public health across and life-course; and Creative arts and public health in different settings. The focus of this book is not solely restricted to dementia, but it does bring to light a number of arts-based programs and research studies that have been conducted in care and community contexts with people living with dementia. The use of the arts in the context of dementia is dotted throughout the book, and dementia-relevant material is easily identifiable through the index or through searching the online version of the book which is available to the reader for 12 months.
The first section of the book sets the scene for the reader, providing clear definitions of the arts and health, as well as detailing the current challenges within this research domain. In setting the scene, the authors also detail the history of the use of the arts for health and wellbeing, as well as detailing the impacts of the arts across the lifespan, from childhood through to older age. The opening of the book therefore orients the reader to the topic area in a way that is both informative and easy to digest. Within this part of the book, there is also a chapter dedicated to the ethics of arts-based health research, which draws on real-life ethical dilemmas experienced during research projects to illustrate the ethical considerations that should be taken into account when conducting arts-based health research. This chapter is particularly useful as there has been limited consideration of the ethics of arts-based health research to date.
Following the opening section, the chapters mainly utilise case studies written by a large number of contributors, which means that the reader is able to be exposed to a vast array of arts-based health research from across the lifespan, both in the UK and internationally. The structure of this book therefore allows the reader to first familiarise themselves with the history, achievements and current challenges of the arts for health movement, and then allows for the exploration of the utility of the arts in differing populations and contexts. This means that the book is very useful as an introduction to the use of the arts for health and wellbeing and is accessible to any researcher or student regardless of research discipline.
Throughout the book, there is mention of the means by which the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing could be measured. This is a particularly important challenge for the future of arts for health, as the evidence base grows larger and stronger. Therefore, this book may have benefitted from exploring this theme in more depth, as there is a lot of debate in the area relating to how we should measure the impact and outcomes arts-based activities. By writing a chapter devoted to the strengths and limitations of current evaluation methods, the reader would be able to gain a greater understanding of the current issues in evaluating community-based arts programs, such as the apparent lack of methodological rigour in certain research areas (i.e. the use of music in dementia care).
This book is not necessarily a book to be read cover to cover, but the way in which it is structured means that the reader can identify a specific arts activity (e.g. music, dance or museums) or population (e.g. dementia, children or prison populations) of interest that they wish to learn more about. I would therefore thoroughly recommend this book to anyone researching or implementing arts-based activities for people living with dementia, in order to learn both about the research that has been conducted to date but also to gain a general understanding of why the arts appear to be universally beneficial, no matter what a person’s diagnosis.