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This book explores the power music has to address health inequalities and the social determinants of health and wellbeing. It examines music participation as a determinant of wellbeing and as a transformative tool to impact on wider social, cultural and environmental conditions. Uniquely, in this volume health and wellbeing outcomes are conceptualised on a continuum, with potential effects identified in relation to individual participants, their communities but also society at large. While arts therapy approaches have a clear place in the text, the emphasis is on music making outside of clinical contexts and the broader roles musicians, music facilitators and educators can play in enhancing wellbeing in a range of settings beyond the therapy room. This innovative edited collection will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of music, social services, medical humanities, education and the broader health field in the social and medical sciences.

A 6000 word chapter, commissioned to scrutinize the place of contemporary art and design in relation to end of life care, and how we die. Science and Art have long been held up as the twin pillars of civilized society, and increased awareness of the impact of design on health and well-being is evidenced by diverse collaborations. Against a backdrop of conspicuous consumption and the global financial downturn, this essay analyses the relationship between design and aspiration for societal well-being, considering how we live our lives, and the manner in which we die. Diagnosis of cancer or dementia, is given to patients in clinical environments by a highly trained clinician. It has been assumed that the design of the environment or the integration of the arts into this space, would be an irrelevance to the patient. Given a diagnosis of any serious disease, we cling to the professionalism and speed of a responsive heath system that will act in our best interest and provide treatment that is well-considered and effective. Considering design and the arts seems ridiculous in the face of illness and are own mortality. Yet, there is a growing body of evidence amongst clinicians, that in the face of illness and death; that the humanities offer medicine something other than scientific reductionism. This chapter focuses on the seemingly tenuous relationship between design and health and assert that its potential impact on future patients is far reaching.

A reflective account of a three-year mixed-methodological research and development project in the North West of England, exploring the impact of creativity, culture and the arts on public health, taking national developments in the field into account. As a result of encouraging a wider critical discourse in the field, this project has contributed to the development of the language of arts and health practice. Art and science are frequently described as the twin pillars of civilisation, but rather than desperate attempts to wrap the arts in hard-edged objectification and pseudo-scientific language, we need to use a vocabulary that’s appropriate for a wider audience and in particular remember that it’s the creative practice, or experience, that is central. The arts have a profound affect on individuals and society, but while governments obsess with measurements of deficit and morbidity, culture and the arts offer us something more than a mechanism for target delivery, they illuminate our very essence and offer us a means of expressing what it is to be human.

This is a paper that explores the potential of culture and the arts across Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Derbyshire Community Health Services (DCHS) as a means of raising aspiration, transforming environments and promoting well being, health gain and cultural change. It acknowledges that the structures for commissioning and providing services are changing, illustrates examples of how the arts have impacted on specific communities and health issues across the county, and suggests potential for future development.