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Objective: To evaluate a health improvement initiative aimed at enhancing the health of men in deprived areas. Design: A healthy lifestyle programme was undertaken with men to increase their health knowledge, and encourage behaviour modification and access to health improvement services. A peer mentoring programme was implemented and a training programme delivered to community and public sector staff. Setting: The programme was delivered in the most deprived wards in Sefton (Liverpool, UK). Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with men in the lifestyle and peer mentoring programme five months into the programme (n = 6). Further telephone interviews with men took place towards the project's end (n = 14). Interviews with community staff and health professionals who attended the training were completed (n = 5), fully transcribed and analysed thematically to meet the evaluation aims. Results: The key themes emerging were issues related to influences on participation (including settings and social networks), experiences of participation (including, for men, issues around control and physical activity) and for staff, the opportunity for reflection. Outcomes for men included: changed bio-medical body condition; increased functional capacity; and improved emotional and experiential well-being. Outcomes for staff included: planned change around individual practice; and networking and organizational change. Conclusion: Men liked the convenient settings for the healthy lifestyle programme and its activities, although peer mentoring involves challenges over recruitment and support, and staff also benefited. Men made recommendations for acceptable locations, support for marginalized men, and appropriate incentives. (Contains 1 box.)

An account is provided of a UK national seminar series on Arts, Health and Wellbeing funded by the Economic and Social Research Council during 2012–13. Four seminars were organised addressing current issues and challenges facing the field. Details of the programme and its outputs are available online. A central concern of the seminar programme was to provide a foundation for creating a UK national network for researchers in the field to help promote evidence-based policy and practice. With funding from Lankelly Chase Foundation, and the support of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Special interest Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing was launched in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although participation in arts activity is believed to have important mental health and social benefits for people with mental health needs, the evidence base is currently weak. This article reports the first phase of a study intended to support the development of stronger evidence. Objectives for the first phase were to map current participatory arts activity, to identify appropriate indicators and to develop measures for use in the second phase of the research. A survey of participatory arts projects for people with mental health needs aged 16 to 65 in England, identified via the Internet and relevant organizations, was carried out to map the scale and scope of activity and to establish the nature of current approaches to evaluation. The results indicate that the scope of activity, in terms of projects’ settings, referral sources, art forms and participation is impressively wide. In terms of scale, however, projects reported low funding and staffing levels that may have implications for the feasibility of routine evaluation in this field. Current approaches to evaluation were limited, but entailed considerable effort and ingenuity, suggesting that projects are keen to demonstrate their benefits. The survey has enabled us to build on the best evaluation practice identified to develop a measure for assessing the mental health, social inclusion and empowerment outcomes of arts participation for people with mental health needs. For the second phase of the study we will work with arts and mental health projects, using the measure alongside qualitative work in a realistic evaluation design, in order to identify the characteristics of effective projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]