ACRC Academy students Jane Dudman and Elaine Addington attended a week-long course to develop knowledge and skills in arts and health research. In June Elaine Addington and Jane Dudman attended the Arts Health Research Intensive.A week-long immersive course to develop knowledge and skills in arts and health research. This annual course is run by The Social Biobehavioural Research Group at UCL in partnership with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health at UCL, the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and the University of Edinburgh PATHS Research Group. This year it was co-organised and hosted by St Columba’s Hospice Care in Edinburgh.St Columba’s Hospice is the most beautiful place that truly honours people in the last stage of their lives. Our tour and talk by Giorgos Tsiris the Director of Education, Research and Creative Arts was inspirational.We had a week filled with talks, creative writing, discussion with fellow attendees from all over the world and research training. It lived up to its name as an intensive! It opened our eyes to some new research and ways of working. Thoughts are still filtering through to our thinking, and will continue to.This manifesto is a call to arms! Arts and Health Manifesto Health is about the way we live our lives; creativity can be seen as a tool in our healthcare toolkit.It is underutilised and underestimated.Creativity helps mental health, loneliness, COPD, asthma, physical health, Parkinsons, dementia, diabetes, chronic pain, blood pressure and so many more.We continue to rely on clinical services for treatment even when the arts have been proved to be beneficial for that condition.Dance for instance is uniquely protective against dementia, when practiced twice a week it has been said to reduce the risk of dementia by 76%*Creativity as an everyday engagement reduces pressure on clinical services.When we were young creativity came easily it was intuitive, it had only to be.Then we tell ourselves we have to be good at it, its not for people like me.But we can choose how we flourish.Creativity is self-care.The arts are preventative healthcare that we have control over.There are options and flexibility, you can lead it and enjoy it. So - why is this not central to our health care system?Because it is the best keep secret.Why is not being shouted about?Because without you the culture of healthcare cannot change.Coming to a public service broadcast near you!ScotGov watch this space! *European Medical Journal article: Dancing Linked to 76% Lower Dementia Risk This article was published on Tuesday 21 July 2026
