Summary
What: An arts in health pilot focused on improving health and wellbeing outcomes for Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service (WBHHS) staff and communities through arts-led activities
Partners: Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service and Arts Queensland
When: 2023-2024
Where: Wide Bay communities including Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Gin Gin, Biggenden, Monto, Childers, Eidsvold, Gayndah and Mundubbera
Details
The Arts in Health pilot program, a partnership with Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service and Children’s Health Queensland, focused on improving wellbeing outcomes for staff and communities through arts-led activities.
As part of the program, WBHHS employed an Arts in Health Consultant to work with local artists to create positive arts in health experiences for patients, visitors and staff.
The Arts in Health Consultancy, delivered through Children’s Health Queensland, supported the Coordinator to establish and design the pilot program, drawing on their experience in delivering best practice and high-quality commissioning, curation and engagement programs.
The pilot program consisted of four projects. The first project, Deck the Wards, occurred in December 2023, Arts in Action ran from May-July 2024 and two additional projects occurred in late 2024.
Pilot Objectives
- Develop a localised strategy to address healthcare priorities and embed arts in health principles in long-term planning.
- Improve staff wellbeing as the workplace moves to a new paradigm following the COVID-19 pandemic, aligned to the WBHHS staff wellbeing framework.
- Increase opportunities for communities to participate in arts activities that improve their health and wellbeing, led by arts practitioners within healthcare and community settings, evidenced through evaluation.
- Develop the local arts workforce through integrating into pilot projects the upskilling of Central Queensland artists to deliver impactful projects within healthcare sector.
- Establish partnerships for future growth, leveraging opportunities to integrate arts and health into future health sector infrastructure and models of care.
Where
Who
Partners: Arts Queensland, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service and Children's Health Queensland
Participants: WBHHS staff, patients, residents and visitors
Delivery
The Arts in Health pilot was delivered across a series of projects.
Deck the Wards was a multi- arts program, which introduced arts experiences into 10 hospitals and health service facilities in the WBHHS during December 2023. The project aimed to respond to feedback regarding the low wellbeing experienced in staff, patients and residents and visitors due to ill health, feelings of isolation, work pressure and the clinical nature of health facilities. Read more about the project.
Arts in Action was a three-month 'creative wellbeing calendar' of recurring arts workshops and experiences for staff at the Bundaberg Hospital with a focus on improving sense of community and mental and physical wellbeing. The program ran from May to July 2024.
Project 3 focused on fostering a recovery-focused environment for patients, visitors and staff at the Maryborough Hospital through creative design and engagement.
Working with the WBHHS Mental Health Unit, this project explored the efficacy and impact of social prescription to treat symptoms of depression and anxiety and to treat patients impacted by social isolation and loneliness.
Image: Deck the Wards, part of Arts in Health Pilot Project by Phluxus Dance Collective, at Mundubbera, Wide Bay Region. Credit: Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service.