News
The first Strategic Action Plan for Arts and Health in Ireland has been developed in partnership by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (Creative Ireland), the Department of Health (Healthy Ireland/Sláintecare), the HSE and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
The Strategic Action Plan 2025 builds on the arts and health partnership between the departments and agencies following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2020 concerning the use of creative programming to deliver national health and wellbeing policies and strategies.
The vision of the Strategic Action Plan is that:
People living in Ireland have access to creative and cultural activity as part of an holistic health journey throughout the life course, supporting better health and wellbeing outcomes and enriching the creative and artistic landscape.
The Plan has six objectives: Policy, Evidence, Capacity Building, Delivery, Governance, and Communications and Engagement.
Objective 1: Policy
To articulate a joint policy position on arts and health in Ireland and ensure coordinated input to international policy making.
Objective 2: Evidence
Establish a research and evaluation framework for arts and health in Ireland to build the evidence base for sustainable project design and funding.
Objective 3: Capacity Building
Provide training and support to equip creative and healthcare professionals to work together to embed creative and cultural activity in the health service in Ireland.
Objective 4: Delivery
Prioritise suitable projects or pilot initiatives and design sustainable delivery mechanisms for their scaling.
Objective 5: Governance
Design and implement governance and reporting arrangements to support a joint policy approach.
Objective 6: Communications & Engagement
Develop and implement an engagement strategy to ensure open dialogue with all stakeholders and support effective implementation.
Key outputs in 2025 include:
- The development of training for health undergraduates
- Research on the impacts of participation in creative and cultural activity across the life course with TILDA (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing at Trinity College Dublin)
- The availability of cultural social prescribing
- Developing arts and health within the HSE
- Relaunching the successful Traveller Health & Wellbeing through Creativity grant call.
