What is Creative Care ?

What are the project’s aims?

Creative Care is a cross-institutional programme seeking to improve the range, quantity and quality of creative activities available on hospital wards and to explore what a new, Creative Care workforce would look like. Creative care is designed to improve and maintain the mental health of service users who take part while supporting them once discharged from their inpatient stay.

Who are the project partners?

Everybody Arts is working in partnership with Creative Minds and South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust (SWYPFT) to lead and deliver Creative Care through a team of experienced Creative Practitioners recruited across West Yorkshire and whose expertise spans creative fields as varied as drawing, painting, screen printing, dance and movement, photography, and music.

What does the project do?

Since the project launch, we have been providing group activities as well as 1:1 support, developed the idea of creative care plans, worked with existing staff to increase skills and confidence, and helped work with the discharge process to connect people with creative activities in their community after their inpatient stay.

This year we received welcome funding from The Baring Foundation to help create positive change for 500 male service users. Thanks to this funding we have been able to focus on finding ways to better engage and support men on wards through creative activity. We have also introduced initiatives to improve the confidence of our creative practitioner team through skills sharing, counselling and bespoke training sessions. 

What are the core principles of Creative Care?

The aim of the programme is to improve the wellbeing of the service users taking part by improving their confidence, self-motivation and practical skills in and through a broad range of creative arts activity. The programme’s activities are designed to support the 5 ways to wellbeing: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. We have found these to be an effective framework for supporting the wellbeing of the service users we work with.

Welcome News

Over the next three years we will be enhancing the wellbeing of young women through funding from the Pilgrim Trust which will support participants to forge a career in the cultural-health sector by providing a range of training, mentoring and work placement opportunities over the course of three six month programmes. Crucially, it will also help to improve a wider group of young women's wellbeing with an associated support network that will build confidence and establish good self-care practices. Learn more about our Bloom project here.