A recent conference laid out plans to make Greater Manchester the first city region in the world to place culture, creativity and heritage at the heart of its public health strategy. Hormoz Ahmadzadeh and Rob Martin from Result CIC were there. 

Have you ever been feeling awful, physically or mentally, but then you've experienced something that lifted you out of it? Maybe it was a trip to the cinema or a concert. Maybe it was a visit to the theatre, or taking part in an activity at your local library. Perhaps you joined a dance class, a reading group, or decided to learn a musical instrument. Maybe you just sang loudly around your house and felt better for it afterwards.

The power of creativity can be astonishing.

On Thursday 12 December 2024, the Creative Health GM conference held at Manchester Metropolitan University outlined something at once revolutionary, visionary and inspired whilst also feeling like the most common sense approach to healthcare to come along for some time.

Greater Manchester has a strategy called Live Well. It emphasises a community-led approach to health and wellbeing. As outlined on their website, being able to Live Well can mean different things to different people:

• enjoying life
• having purpose
• a good job
• being in a warm and safe house
• people to spend time with and care about
• being represented
• having a voice and a say in decisions about my life.

As chaired by Julie McCarthy, the Strategic Lead for Creative Health in Greater Manchester, the conference outlined plans to place culture, creativity and heritage at the heart of the Live Well policy.

One of the reasons we attended the conference was because of our previous involvement with Creative Health in Greater Manchester, delivering Action Learning Sets in arts and health called MYRIAD which we wrote about in December and which you can read here. MYRIAD is a health initiative that aims to increase the range of mental health support available to global majority communities in the region.

Given the amount of evidence and data that exists, you'd expect this to be common thought and practice within health provision, but far from it. 

Sessions within the conference brought together health professionals from the NHS, artists, community representatives, local councillors and, crucially, people who have had their lives transformed via creative interventions that have had a huge impact on their health and well-being. 

We heard from English National Opera about their ENO Breathe programme, supporting people recovering from the effects of COVID-19. We heard from Arts Council England and their commitment towards supporting the strategy. Organisations such as Cartwheel Arts, Dad Matters, Venture Arts and many more presented findings that many people who have worked in the arts and cultural industries have always known: creativity can support us all to live well.

And although this concept is far from new, the conference felt like the bodies that control the finances, those who make the big funding decisions, and the commitment of Greater Manchester Combined Authority make this the right combination of people and initiatives at the right time to make it work.

We left the conference feeling optimistic that change is possible and that, like the approach we take at Result CIC, there is no 'one-size fits all' when it comes to our health and well-being. Having delivered Action Learning Sets as part of the MYRIAD programme, we look forward to further connections with Creative Health, Julie and the team delivering this groundbreaking initiative.