Author: Lambert, Patricia Dewey, Editor

Publication Year: 2015

Media Type: Book

Summary:

A growing body of research demonstrates how the arts – including literary, performing and visual arts as well as architecture and design – can greatly enhance the experience of healthcare, contributing to improved health outcomes, a better patient experience and lower healthcare costs. This unique book provides an overview of what the arts in healthcare can achieve and how to implement the arts in the most effective manner. Exploring possibilities for innovative program design and implementation – from healing gardens through public performances to bedside activities – the text draws on examples from a wide range of arts. The book then goes on to look at how programs can be aimed at specific populations and fields, such as children, palliative care and caregivers. This comprehensive book is an invaluable reference for all those studying or engaged in creating, designing, managing and evaluating arts in healthcare programs and initiatives.

Abstract:

The integration of arts initiatives, activities, and programs in healthcare facilities of all kinds can be seen everywhere. As a growing body of research demonstrates how the arts contribute to the “triple aim” of improved health outcomes, a better patient experience, and lower healthcare costs, healthcare administrators are both encouraging and financially supporting arts programming in their institutions. And, in an era of turbulent healthcare reform in the United States, hospitals are welcoming the competitive advantage and community engagement opportunities that arts programming and partnerships can provide. These arts-based initiatives manifest as a wide array of aesthetic design choices, healthcare settings that provide a sense of wellbeing, and passive or active encounters with visual and performing artists. As this book illustrates, many extraordinary arts programs exist to benefit patients, patients’ families, medical staff, and the community at large.

But with so many healthcare institutions now offering vibrant arts initiatives in their facilities, who is managing these programs, and what do these leaders need to know to effectively and efficiently do their jobs? At present, educational resources for professional managers of the arts in healthcare settings are virtually non-existent. This gap is striking when one considers that about half of America’s healthcare institutions report having arts in healthcare programming. There is ever-increasing need for trained specialists to professionally manage organizational policies and practices involving activities such as visual art exhibits, public performances, bedside arts activities, and arts programs for medical staff.

When I started exploring the development of a new graduate-level specialization in Arts in Healthcare Management within a well-established Arts Management program, I knew little of the history, scope, and depth of this field. Over the past five years, it has become increasingly clear to me that the arts in healthcare field is growing dramatically, and urgently requires that entrepreneurial leaders build their capacity to conceptualize, design, implement, and evaluate arts programs in healthcare settings. This book, the first of its kind to focus on professional leadership and management of arts programs in healthcare settings, will hopefully pave the way for additional resources to emerge in the coming years.

In entering this new terrain, I found myself welcomed with open arms by the established leaders in the field, who have gathered annually at meetings of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare since 1991. More recently, this professional association was renamed the Global Alliance for Arts & Health, and then the Arts & Health Alliance, but the organization has retained the same core group of members throughout its life cycle. At the time of this writing, this professional association is once again restructuring. In my view, this represents the transition to young adulthood in the life cycle of this field, as arts programs within health-care become increasingly mainstreamed and expected as part of patient-centered care and caregiver support services. It is indeed an exciting time to get involved in educating current and future leaders to harness the power of the arts to transform the healthcare experience.

A glance through the list of chapter titles on the contents pages will provide an overview of the scope of the professional field to be discussed throughout the book, and the first chapter presents a concise introduction to the field as a whole. In considering the relationship between arts and health, you will immediately notice a significant gap in this publication: the well-established creative arts therapies are not specifically addressed in any of the chapters. The reason for this is that the creative arts therapies (music therapy, art therapy, drama therapy, and so on) have existed for decades within a highly professionalized system of education, certification, and accreditation. The arts in healthcare side of the field – the focus of this book as introduced in Chapter 1 – encompasses a much broader range of activities, and is in a very early stage of professionalization. Many excellent publications on the creative arts therapies already exist, and this book project is specifically delimited to focus on the “other” areas of engagement in the very large arts and health field.

Another conscious choice for this book project has been to focus solely on the arts in healthcare field in the United States. While the contributing authors sometimes reference international examples, and we are all aware that this field is very active internationally, it made sense for this first book project on this topic to focus only on arts programs within the complexity of the healthcare system in the United States. This provides you with an overview of opportunities for program development within the field as a whole, without shifting the underlying societal and policy framework chapter by chapter to reflect diverse national systems. That said, it would be wonderful to develop international book projects on this topic in the future!

I initiated this book project in fall 2013 to be a “team effort” among leading scholars and practitioners in the arts in healthcare field. Along the way, writing and editing sub-groups were established to provide input to each other in drafting initial chapters, and the contributing authors had the opportunity to provide feedback to each other on all the chapters in winter 2015. The result is a sequence of chapters that complement each other to provide a full overview of the landscape of what’s involved in managing arts programs in healthcare.

The concepts, strategies, approaches, tools, and examples offered by the authors provide breadth rather than depth on the topics contained within these pages, but references listed by the authors will point you toward further sources of information. This book offers you an overview of the arts in healthcare field that we hope will stimulate thought, research, and praxis to further propel advancement and professionalization of arts programs in healthcare settings. [Preface by Patricia Dewey Lambert]

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts and Military