An ambitious national plan to embed music, visual art and other creative practice into healthcare and the youth justice system has received funding.
Murdoch Children's Research Institute's (MCRI) Justice Health Group and The Foundation for Social Health (FSH) received support from Creative Australia to develop a national pilot, informed by the latest child and adolescent health and wellbeing research.
The program aims to build an Australian-first framework, enabling creative and health infrastructure to address loneliness as a social health issue and respond to the national mental health crisis.
The new model sees health, arts, community and youth leaders champion programs across disadvantaged communities, general medical practice, workplaces, youth detention and remand centres, aged care and more to foster purpose, belonging and creativity.
The Creative Health Taskforce, led by human rights advocate and lawyer Nyadol Nyuon and mental health reformer Sebastian Rosenberg, will bring together sector leaders to address gaps in Australia's creative and health infrastructure.
The two-year taskforce will work to deliver:
- A national quality framework for creative health
- A badge system and toolkit for health practitioners
- A searchable database of creative health practitioners
- Peer mentoring, residencies, and training for creative health workers
- A fundraising strategy with government, philanthropy and self-generating elements in mind
- Sustainable long-term stewardship and coalition-building across clinical, cultural and community sectors
It is hoped the taskforce will also be the catalyst for wide-reaching future reforms, including:
- Prescribing non-medical interventions (activities, social outings and more) among general practices, youth services and pharmacies to meet practical, social and emotional needs
- Creative health programs embedded across communities, workplaces and custodial settings
- A national framework to better measure belonging, connection and wellbeing in Australia
MCRI Professor Stuart Kinner said the potential benefits of the initiative were enormous, especially for children and adolescents.
Image: Professor Stuart Kinner
"The latest evidence suggests that three quarters of young people experience clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety and despite their digital, connected world are some of the loneliest people in recorded history," he said.
"However, if we can harness the talents, the creativity and the hopes of our children and adolescents, we can change the world for the better. Initiatives like this represent a step towards this goal."
