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Research & Innovation

Across the health faculties and beyond, academics collaborate with artists and arts professionals to test new approaches to health and wellbeing.

There are many roles that art and culture can play in clinical and care settings, including:

  • Management of healthcare conditions
  • Enhancement of the clinical and care environment 
  • Communication of health and social care issues 
  • Supporting the wellbeing of health and social care staff 
  • Promoting compassionate care
  • Strengthening leadership and teamwork

King’s and UCL are leading a new study into impact of arts on health and wellbeing:  SHAPER – Scaling-up Health-Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research – is led by Professor Carmine Pariante, Professor of Biological Psychiatry at King’s College London and Dr Daisy Fancourt, Associate Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology at UCL, supported by a £2m award from Wellcome Trust. It aims to provide the evidence needed for arts-based interventions to be embedded into NHS treatment pathways.

The detailed case studies included below aim to contribute to knowledge and practice in each of these areas, as well as to the broad development of arts practice in clinical and care settings. Find out about the range of past and present arts, health and wellbeing activity across the King's Cultural Community.

Arts for managing health conditions

Dancing for health

Dancing for health

Developing new tools to better capture the perceived impact of taking part in dance

Garment+

Garment+

Testing the role of fashion on the positive well-being of patients with musculoskeletal conditions

Arts for the healthcare environment

MRI space shuttle

MRI space shuttle

Addressing the challenge of acquiring MRI scans of young children and vulnerable people

Arts for improving mental health

Sound Mind

Sound Mind

Recreating some of the effects of hallucinogenic (AKA psychedelic) drugs through live music and…

Maternal Journal

Maternal Journal

Exploring the potential of 'journaling' to promote good mental health and wellbeing for pregnant…

Weaving a New Story

Weaving a New Story

A project investigating how mindful textile work can support mothers with post-natal depression

Arts for understanding mental health

Arts for health communication

Going Digital

Going digital

Exploring electronic communication between clinicians and young people through interactive forum…

Re-Assure

Re-Assure

Animation to help women share their safety concerns about life threatening illness and enable…

Arts for healthcare staff

Voicing the Silence

Voicing the Silence

An animation exploring the maternity care experiences of women who were sexually abused in…

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"The value of arts in health to patient and population care and wellbeing is truly exceptional. This is the case across all healthcare disciplines and dentistry is certainly no exception. The development of new approaches to address patient anxiety and dental phobia by bringing together the creativity of the arts with clinical best practice is one such example. The cross-faculty working and interdisciplinary approaches that exemplify all that is great about King’s mean that we are in a truly unique position to provide ground- breaking advances in this hugely exciting and important field."

Professor Mike Curtis, Executive Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

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