Arts in Hospitals and Care
Arts programmes inside wards, care homes and mental health units: what they are for, who runs them, consent and safeguarding, and how to start one.
- Starting an Arts Programme in a Care Setting: The Practical Page for Managers
July 24, 2026
Programmes fail on logistics, not on the quality of the work. Insurance, safeguarding, money, and who owns the thing once the enthusiast has left.
- Live Music on Hospital Wards: The Consent and Noise Questions Nobody Raises
July 21, 2026
On an open ward the audience cannot leave. What that means for musicians, and the half minute rule that separates a good programme from a thoughtless one.
- Creative Work at the End of Life: Legacy Pieces, Memory Books and Who They Belong To
July 19, 2026
Making something that outlives its maker raises questions nobody asks until afterwards. Who owns it, who else is in it, and what was actually agreed.
- Consent and Safeguarding in Arts in Health: Capacity, Photographs and What Cannot Be Shared
July 16, 2026
Somebody who cannot consent cannot agree to being photographed, and a relative's permission does not reliably extend to publication. The rules that follow.
- Arts for Carers and Health Staff: Enthusiasm Running Well Ahead of the Evidence
July 14, 2026
The fastest growing part of this field and the thinnest evidenced. Why staff wellbeing programmes are hard to test, and the question to ask before funding one.
- Arts in Hospitals: What the Programmes Are For, and What They Can Claim
July 3, 2026
One 1984 study of 23 matched pairs still underwrites a forty year claim. What hospital arts programmes do, and which of their claims hold up.
- Arts in Mental Health Inpatient Units: Therapy, Occupation, and Knowing Which You Are Offered
June 29, 2026
A ward art group and a registered therapy can look identical from the doorway. What separates them, and what the largest UK trial actually found.
- Creative Activity in Dementia Care: What the 2025 Review Changed, and What to Expect
June 26, 2026
Moderate certainty evidence of no effect on agitation, a small effect on low mood, and nothing lasting four weeks. What that means for a weekly session.
- Arts in Care Homes: Who Delivers It, and What Is Actually Expected of a Home
June 24, 2026
Activity sits within a home's wider duties, not clinical care. Who runs it, what good looks like, and the question families should ask about staffing.
- Does Hospital Art Speed Recovery? One 1984 Study, Read Line by Line
June 18, 2026
Forty six patients, 23 matched pairs, one operation, one season, and no artwork in it at all. What Ulrich 1984 found, including the row nobody quotes.