Assessing the Impact of Arts and Creativity Interventions for Older People: A Public Health Evaluation Toolkit

The all-Ireland Institute of Public Health has produced a toolkit to support the arts and creativity sector to design, plan, conduct, assess and report on evaluations of arts and creativity programmes and interventions within a public health context.

The toolkit is primarily intended for those working within arts or community organisations in the arts, creativity and ageing sectors or those who provide or fund arts and creativity activities that aim to improve older people’s health and wellbeing.

The objectives of the toolkit are to:

• Provide a better understanding of the concept of public health and the importance of arts and creativity in promoting health and wellbeing in older adults.
• Provide support to increase your knowledge and understanding of what evaluation is and why it is important for your intervention or programme.
• Provide you with some guidance on the approaches and tools you can use to prepare, plan, and implement your evaluation.
• Help you identify outcomes which matter the most to the people you work with and to your organisation.
• Help you to focus on the most appropriate tools you can use to measure health and wellbeing changes in outcomes for the people who use your service.
• Provide information for better reporting of project activities to better understand what works in different situations.
• Explain terminologies used in relation to evaluation and the different elements of your work.

Background 
The Institute of Public Health (IPH) informs public policy to support healthier populations in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2021, the IPH carried out an evidence review on how arts and creativity can have positive outcomes for older people’s health and wellbeing. One of the recommendations identified the need for an evaluation toolkit for the arts and creativity sector to be able to better measure, record and assess the impact of their programmes.

Access the Toolkit