Alliance to lay foundations for national creative health infrastructure

Creative Health Alliance Australia, a two-year arts and health initiative, launched this month. Initiated by Creative Australia in response to demand from the sector and growing evidence of the value of creative health, the alliance brings together partners from the Foundation for Social Health and researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) Justice Health Group — to lay the foundations for national creative health infrastructure and deliver new tools, support structures and standards.

“There is growing national and international recognition of the role the arts can play in supporting health and wellbeing,” Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette AM said. “This initiative builds on that momentum, supporting the practitioners already doing this work so they can reach more people and build stronger more connected communities.”

To be delivered as part of the two-year partnership are: 

• a co-designed national quality framework for creative health;
• a practitioner-facing badge system and toolkit based on the quality framework;
• a searchable database of creative health practitioners;
• peer mentoring, residencies and training for creative health workers;
• a robust three-tier fundraising strategy (government, philanthropy, self-generating); and
• sustainable long-term stewardship and coalition-building across clinical, cultural and community sectors. 
   

“Our research and sector engagement show that creative health programs are already having powerful impacts in communities across Australia, but often without the recognition and support they deserve,” said Dr Christen Cornell, Creative Australia Research Fellow and Manager Research Partnerships. “This initiative lays the foundations for a more coordinated and sustainable future for creative health — not as charity or enrichment, but as a core component of Australia’s public health future.”

“The latest evidence suggests that three-quarters of young people experience clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety, and despite their connected digital world are some of the loneliest people in recorded history,” MCRI’s Professor Stuart Kinner said. “However, if we can harness the talents, creativity and hopes of our children and adolescents, we can change the world for the better. Initiatives like this represent a step towards this goal.”

The Foundation for Social Health has established a Creative Health Taskforce — led by human rights advocate Nyadol Nyuon and mental health reformer Sebastian Rosenberg — as part of its contribution to the alliance. This taskforce will work with sector leaders to address critical gaps across Australia’s arts and health infrastructure.

“We’ve spent years diagnosing the problem. Now is the time to fund what works — and treat connection as essential infrastructure,” Foundation for Social Health CEO Melanie Wilde said. “Australia is behind and it’s time to invest in community-based, culturally relevant supports that actually work. We keep telling people to reach out. But what if there’s no one there to catch them?”

Image credit: iStock.com/mixetto