A new training course for busy Arts and Health Professionals who wish to develop and run successful arts in health programmes has been launched by Aesop and Canterbury Christ Church University.
Aesop Institute 2019 is aimed at those who wish to devise and run successful arts and health programmes and will enable professionals from both sectors to develop the values and beliefs, knowledge, skills and competencies required to achieve this.
In a speech earlier this month to the King’s Fund, Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, spoke of the life-enhancing benefits of the arts and social activities, and how as a society we should be making greater use of their power to improve the nation’s health and wellbeing.
The Health and Social Care Secretary said the arts are an ‘indispensable tool’ for the NHS, adding that social prescribing can be used to “help shape our health and social care system” and should be seen as fundamental to preventing the over-use of medicines and offer a cost-effective treatment that is “better for patients, and better for society”.
Aesop is a bridge-builder, connecting the worlds of health and the arts. A charity and social enterprise, the organisation’s mission is to help health harness the powers of the arts, and help the arts gear up to deliver health improvement.
Aesop’s Chief Executive and Founder, Tim Joss, said: “I was in the room when Matt Hancock spoke and asked him how to make the indispensable tool of the arts available to all. He started listing elements of the Aesop Institute curriculum! We clearly need many more health and arts professionals expert in linking these two sectors. We need artistic quality and health improvement advancing hand in hand. And we need university accreditation to boost the status and quality of this important work.”
For over a decade the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health at Canterbury Christ Church University has conducted research on the benefits of participation in the arts to the quality of life and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Professor Stephen Clift, Director of the Centre, said: “I am delighted that Canterbury Christ Church University is collaborating with Aesop in creating this innovative module in arts, health and wellbeing. It will give both arts and health professionals an opportunity to explore issues of direct relevance to their ongoing work and development in this field, and gain university accreditation.”
This newly designed course will start with a three-day residential school in Folkestone in May 2019, with a two-day follow-up residential in Canterbury in September 2019.
Researchers and experienced innovators in arts in health will provide current perspectives on developments in the field during the programme. From May to September Aesop Institute students will develop and deliver arts and health programmes, fully supported by the Aesop Institute team.
The course is accredited by Canterbury Christ Church University and students who successfully complete the programme will be awarded academic credits at Level 4 through 7 dependent on highest level of qualifications.
For further information about Aesop Institute and how to apply visit: aesop.org/aesop–institute
For further information on the work of Aesop visit here.
You can find further information on the Sidney De Haan Research Centre visit here.