NMHS32250 Arts and Health

Academic Year 2023/2024

This elective module is open to all students with an interest in art and its impacts on health and well-being. It will be of particular interest to medical, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, radiography, social science and psychology students. This module is delivered face to face. Lectures are not recorded. 100% attendance is required.

Arts and health is the generic term that embraces a range of arts practices occurring primarily in healthcare settings, which brings together the skills and priorities of both arts and health professionals (Arts Council’s Arts and Health Policy and Strategy, 2010). Over recent years, there has been a growing understanding of the impact that taking part in the arts can have on health and well-being. There are many different ways in which this work is described (arts in health, arts for health, arts and health, etc) but essentially they are all about the effect that active engagement can have on the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

This module aims to highlight how the arts can improve the health of people who experience physical or mental health problems. Engaging in this module will develop individual students knowledge relating to how the arts can promote health, enable the prevention of disease and build well-being. Students will also explore how the arts can improve healthcare environments and benefit staff retention and professional development. The overall aim of this module is to develop an awareness and understanding of the role, value and impact that the arts have on health, within a health care context and alongside a variety of health and social care disciplines.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module the student will be able to:
- Critically explore the nature of creativity and its role in developing imagination and vision, as a force for personal change and enhancement of interpersonal relationships within the healthcare arena
- Discuss the diverse range of connections between the arts, and health and well-being
- Identify different sources of evidence supporting the premise that art based interventions reduce adverse health outcomes and promote health and well-being
- Critically discuss the social and psychological impact of a variety of art programmes on a diverse range of health service users and providers
- Discuss the process required for developing, implementing and evaluating an Arts programme in a health care setting
- Present (as part of a group) a creative art intervention aimed at promoting health, healing and well-being, that is supported by a wide variety of evidence sources (i.e. empirical and creative)


Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

22

Project Supervision

2

Specified Learning Activities

40

Autonomous Student Learning

61

Total

125

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module is delivered face to face in UCD Belfield campus. A variety of teaching and learning approaches are used e.g. group exploration and discovery, peer review, didactic teaching, case presentation 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: 1000 word essay Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

60

Group Project: Art and health project Week 12 n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

40


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Group Project - Each group presents their project in week 12. Feedback is provided in real time by the student peers and the lecturers (assessors). Written feedback is also provided to each group Brightspace. End of Trimester Essay - Students receive individualize written feedback in Brightspace. If students have any queries regarding feedback they can contact the module director for clarification.

Studio+ Art with Health and Wel-lbeing - Reading List

The arts and dementia: Emerging directions for theory, research and practice http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1471301218772972
As part of the 1916 East Rising commemorations in Ireland, Clive Parkinson was invited to
share the development and context to the Manifesto for Arts & Health at the inaugural Arts
and Health Check Up Check In event. This is a transcript of his presentation.
Author:Clive Parkinson
Year:2016

Context:Arts and health
Artform:Various
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SLAP-PDF-of-Clive-Parkinsonspaper.
pdf
Rosie Goan reflects on the growing international trend towards the presentation of
projects rooted in arts and health practice at festivals.
Author:Rosie Goan
Publisher:Create
Year:2014

Context:Festivals
Artform:Collaborative practice
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Create-News-May-2014.pdf
A peer reviewed perspective on aesthetic deprivation in clinical settings
Author:Des O’Neill, Hilary Moss
Publisher:The Lancet
Year:2014

Context:Acute Hospital
Artform:Various
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60507-9/fulltext
This text is from a talk given by Mary Ruth Walsh at the opening of the Body Conscious
exhibition at Waterford Regional Hospital in June 2012.
Author:Mary Ruth Walsh
Year:2012

Context:
Acute Hospital, Exhibition
Artform:Visual Art
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Body-Conscious-Dorothy-Ann-
Daly2012-WrittenText-by-Mary-Ruth-Walsh.pdf
An artist’s perspective on arts and health.
Author:
Marie Brett
Year:2011

Artform:Visual Art
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2-Unravelling-Arts-+-Health-
Practice-Marie-Brett..pdf
Comparing the role of an arts therapist to the role of an artist working in an arts and
health context.
Author:Ed Kuczaj, John McHarg, Marie Brett
Year:2011

Context:Art Therapy, Artist
Artform:Visual Art
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Working-on-the-Edge.pdf
A conference paper considering varying approaches to curating contemporary art in acute
hospitals
Author:Mary Grehan
Year:2008

Context:Acute Hospital
Artform:Visual Art
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/A-creative-challenge-thecuratorship-
of-contemporary-art-practice-in-an-acute-hospital-context-M-Grehan-April-10.pdf
A report revealing that engaging with the arts and culture generally has a positive longterm
effect on health and wellbeing.
Author:Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt
Publisher:Clive Parkinson Arts for Health Manchester Metropolitan University
Year:2015

Context:Arts and health
Artform:Various
http://www.artsforhealth.org/research/artsengagementandhealth/
ArtsEngagementandHealth.pdf
An investigation exploring tensions that arise in confidentiality, decision making and
consent within an arts and health context.
Author:Sarah Ruttle
Year:2014

Context:
Arts and health
Artform:Various
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Confidentiality-Consent-and-
Decision-Making-in-Arts-and-Health-Participatory-Art-Practice-Sarah-Ruttle.pdf

Over 59 million workers are employed in the healthcare sector globally, with a daily risk of
being exposed to a complex variety of health and safety hazards. The purpose of this study
was to investigate the impact of arts activity on the well-being of nursing staff.
Author:
Jūratė Macijauskienė, Simona Karpavičiūtė
Publisher:
International Journal for Environmental Research in Public Health 2016
Year:
2016
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/435

Beauchemin, K. and Hays, P. (1996) Sunny hospital rooms expedite recovery from severe and
refractory depressions, Journal of Affective Disorders, 40, 49-51.

Hodges, H., Keeley, A.C., Grier, E. (2001) Masterworks of art and chronic illness experiences in
the elderly. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 36(3), 389-398.

Homicki B., and Joyce E. (2004) Art Illuminates Patients' Experience at the Massachusetts
General Hospital Cancer Center, the Oncologist 9, 111-114.

Ulrich, R. (1984) View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery, Science, 224,
420-421.

Ulrich R. (1992) How design impacts wellness, Healthcare Forum Journal, 35, 5, 20-25.
Weber. David (1995) Environments that heal. The Healthcare Forum Journal: 38: 2, 42-46.

OPINIONS ON ASPECTS OF ARTS AND HEALTH PRACTICE FROM A RANGE OF PERSPECTIVES

Klaus Unger, a retired architect, has been a frequent patient in hospital over the last six years.
He argues that a patient-centred approach to hospital design is essential to improving
wellbeing outcomes.
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/aesthetics-and-design-in-hospital-interiors/

Professor Anna Furse, theatre maker and practising academic, reflects on the personal
circumstances that have led to a series of projects interrogating the ‘medical gaze’ and how
the body, particularly the woman’s body, becomes spectacular through this gaze.
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/spectacular-body/

Socially engaged artist Siobhán Clancy has been producing collaborative work in and outside of
healthcare settings for nearly a decade. For Siobhán, the priorities of health equality are
compatible with the strategic objectives and aspirations of arts and health work. Yet she has
discovered that when engaging with marginalized experiences and excluded constituents,
artists sometimes find themselves outside the current framework of arts and health practice.
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/whose-move-body-politics-and-health-equalitypositioning-
arts-practice-in-contested-territories/

Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University, Clive Parkinson describes the
political thinking that led to and is embodied in the UK’s first Manifesto for Arts and Health.
A Love-Filled Slap: A Manifesto for Arts and Health
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/a-love-filled-slap-a-manifesto-for-arts-and-health/

Culture and arts in hospitals – a patient’s perspective
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/culture-and-arts-in-hospitals-a-patientsperspective/

Shall we discuss this outside? A look at artistic and medical responses to ethical quandaries
http://www.artsandhealth.ie/perspectives/shall-we-discuss-this-outside-a-look-at-artistic-andmedical-
responses-to-ethical-quandaries/

Art and Health Organisations

http://www.waterfordhealingarts.com
An Arts and Health organisation based in the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health in the grounds
of Waterford Regional Hospital.

http://www.create-ireland.ie
Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts and has supported the
development of arts in healthcare initiatives.

http://www.tuh.ie/Departments/Arts-Department-–-National-Centre-for-Arts-and-Health/
The website for the National Centre for Arts and Health at Tallaght Hospital

https://artsandmindscork.com
Arts + Minds is a Health Service Executive (HSE) arts and mental health programme based
in Cork. It is a mental health staff led initiative supported through the HSE Cork Arts and
Health Programme.

http://helium.ie
Helium Arts is the national children's arts and health organisation giving a creative voice to
children and teenagers living with illness through participatory arts programmes.

http://adiarts.ie
Arts and Disabilty Ireland (ADI) is the national development and resource organisation for
arts and disability.

https://dialogueartsandhealth.wordpress.com/documentation/
Dialogue Arts + Health aimed to bring together artists experienced or interested in
developing contemporary art projects in healthcare settings through peer-to-peer Dialogue
Sessions in Ireland.
Here you can find pdfs about the dialogue sessions, podcasts from the sessions.

http://www.artscouncil.ie/search/?searchQuery=arts%20and%20health
The Arts Council
Name Role
Ms Emma Finucane Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Spring
     
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32 Fri 11:00 - 12:50
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 26 Fri 11:00 - 12:50
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 31 Fri 11:00 - 12:50
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 33 Fri 11:00 - 12:50
Spring