Arts and Heath Roadshow report

Arts in Health Public Health Network Cymru Roadshow2019 Evaluation Summary Report Catherine Evans Public Health Network Cymru Coordinator July 2019

Background Public Health Network Cymru is a platform for practitioners, researchers and policy makers from all sectors and settings in Wales. It is also a place for learning, sharing and engaging in key public health topics and issues.

Public Health Network Cymru was officially launched in May 2015 at events across Wales. It was developed as the next step in the evolution of the public health networks, merging the four existing topic based Networks into one all-encompassing service, offering a ‘one stop shop’ for practitioners working on public health topics in Wales.

Public Health Network Cymru Arts in Health Roadshow 2019 The 2019 Roadshow focused on Arts in Health and in partnership with the Health and Sustainability Hub (Public Health Wales) and Arts Council Wales. Five events were held across Wales. These events are an opportunity for the Network to engage with and inform members of future developments of the Network as well as a chance to further increase membership. The events are also a chance for local projects to showcase their work and network with other individuals with an interest in Arts and Health.

This year the events were held in Brecon, Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Carmarthen and Barry and where possible the venues were chosen because of their involvement with the arts sector.

Overview of the day After initial introductions and an overview of the day the delegates were invited to take part in an icebreaker which had an arts and health theme. Malcolm Ward, Network Manager, then gave a brief overview of Public Health Network Cymru which included a short video explaining the Network in more detail. The video can be viewed here.

Arts Council of Wales delivered a presentation explaining the role of the organisation and how it has developed partnerships with health to deliver a number of arts related projects. The next presentation was from the Health and Sustainability Hub which explained their role in Public Health Wales and how they link with arts in health. Two further national projects delivered presentations at the events. These were Music in Hospitals and Care and Wales Arts Health and Wellbeing Network.

The rest of the programme gave local projects and organisations the opportunity to showcase their work on arts in health. The majority of projects presented their work in a 15 minute presentation, but some provided a demonstration/workshop and others provided a display stand. These projects can be seen in the table below, and all presentations are available to view on the past events page of the website.

Brecon • Caban Scriblio • Music and the Muse Workshops for Wellbeing

Aberystwyth • Writing Pain Wales • Celf-Able

Wrexham • Artisans Collective Communities • BCUHB Arts, Health & Wellbeing Programme • Service Improvement Project: North Wales Adolescent Service • The Arts in Dementia Care

Carmarthen • People Speak Up • write4word - Bright Flowers • Swansea Bay Health Board Arts & Heritage for Health • Henry Hedgepodge Academy • Arts Care Gofal Celf

Barry • Dance for Parkinson’s • Four in Four • ValePlus • Motion Control Dance

National projects • Arts Council of Wales • Health and Sustainability Hub • Music in Hospitals and Care • Wales Arts Health and Well-being Network and Engage Cymru • Tenovus Cancer Care Choir • Representing Communities: Developing the Creative Power of People to Improve Health and Well-being • Age Cymru

Attendance Numbers and Organisations / Sectors The invitation to the events went out to Network members as well as being forwarded by Arts Council of Wales and the Health and Sustainability Hub to their contacts within arts and health. This year it was decided to use venues which had an involvement in the arts sector so this went someway in determining where in Wales the events were held.

Venue Brecon Aberyswyth Wrexham Carmarthen Barry Total

Number attending 25 29 26 47 44 171

Total numbers increased slightly (171) compared to 2018 (168). As expected the events in Barry and Carmarthen attracted the most people however it was pleasing to see that the events held in Mid and North Wales had an increase in numbers compared to previous years.

A number of sectors were represented at the events which included the Third Sector and Voluntary Organisations, Local Authorities, Academia and to a lesser extent Health Boards and Public Health Wales.

Evaluation Form: Quantitative Results Participants were asked to complete evaluation feedback forms at the end of every event. 81 were completed from the 171 delegates.

The first question asks delegates whether they were members of Public Health Network Cymru. It is interesting to note that there were more delegates (57) who were not members compared to those who were members (23), particularly as the events were mainly advertised among members of the Network. However this does show that information sent to members is then passed on to other colleagues and organisations.

The Network had 43 new member registrations in the weeks during and following the roadshows. The Network’s Roadshow events provide an opportunity to promote the Network across Wales, and the increase in membership has shown that this has been a success.

Another question asked delegates to rank from one to five, (where one is not at all useful and five is very useful) how useful did you find the seminar.

As can be seen, the majority of people answered 4 or 5 (73) to this question with 6 people providing the answer of 3.

Evaluation Form: Qualitative Results Further questions on the evaluation form looked for a qualitative response and are detailed below. A selection of comments from individual evaluation forms have been included under each heading.

What was your main motivation for attending this event?

The main reason given under this heading was to network and link up with people in the arts sector. One comment highlighted the fact that the events did not attract people from the health sector which is an important aspect if more arts projects are to link up with health services.

“Link with Arts. Partnership with Health is key for us. Thank you so much for setting up and running such an inspiring event!”

“Networking and connecting with other professionals around Health, Arts and wellbeing” “As part of CCBC we have a remit to meet the goals of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act using the creative arts.

Wanted to hear what other organisations are doing and also have networking opportunities” “To connect with the wider Arts and Health sector” “It seems important that health professionals come to these events, otherwise it’s yet again another event where artists are talking to each other about the great work they’re doing” Was there anything that was of notable interest?

The Arts Council of Wales and Music in Hospitals and Care presentations were mentioned a number of times under this heading as was the research presented by Tenovus Cancer Care. The information provided by Public Health Network Cymru was also commented on a number of times.

“Everything was very inspiring. The fact the research and evidence of how the arts improve health was fascinating, though I always knew it to be true!”

“Credibility and depth of the research into Tenovus choir” “All of it - really nice spread of speakers” “Finding out about Public Health Network, online tools and resources. The Writing Pain project, Music in Hospitals and Care” “All very powerful, particularly the role of singing in anxiety and depression” “Effects of music on dementia sufferers stimulating movement and memory. Impact of live music on mental health in hospitals” “Good balanced programme” “Nearly all the presentations presented inspiring examples of how art could be used in ways to improve wellbeing” How do you plan to utilise the learning gained at this event?

A number of people mentioned registering as a member of the Network and contributing to the website and e-bulletins. Delegates were also keen to share their learning with other colleagues and follow up on contacts made at the events.

“Potential to strengthen our links (i) with PHW and (ii) with more regional partners through the roadshow” “To inform future work and share learning with colleagues” “I hope to link with local projects and use the PHW bulletin to promote the National Library’s ‘Living Memory’ scheme” “Consider projects and discussions for future planning” “Networking and trying to introduce some of the projects to my area” “Share with colleagues/follow up contacts made. Join the Network” What seminar /conference topics would you like to see delivered in the future?

The issue of attendance from the health sector particularly in the Mid and North Wales events was brought up again under this heading. Depending on the topic area future events may need more targeting in terms of representation from the health sector. Research and evidence was also highlighted a number of times.

“Health sector discussing what they would like from us. It seems, due to their lack of attendance, that they don’t see the relevance of the arts to health and wellbeing - otherwise they would attend wouldn’t they?”

“Clinical evidence for Arts in Health interventions - What is out there? How can we develop partnerships to measure projects” “Anything that helps improve lifestyle, health and wellbeing” “Something similar but with a focus on young people” “Research and evidence” “Arts on prescription” “More of the same, more research results on why what we do matters” Other Comments It was pleasing to see that the events in Mid Wales were welcomed by a number of people, particularly as previous year’s numbers have been quite low. There were a number of requests for a delegate list which is something to consider for future events. The issue of sustainability came up a few times in terms of catering and using paper cups and plates. However these comments came from delegates at venues where outside catering had to be brought in. The venues used for the events were mainly community settings and theatres. Two out of the five did not have in-house catering which is why external catering was used for these venues.

“An interesting and informative day learning about other people’s organisations and approaches” “Please more roadshows in Mid Wales of this sort!!”

“Great event!”

“Would be great to have more time to talk - develop ideas” “Thank you for all your hard work in organising a fantastic day!”

“A truly fantastic and inspirational day. Thank you!”

“Have never really realised the power and usefulness of the arts within my own work” “Thank you for a great, informative and sharing day” “Excellent event well organised and incredibly varied. Well done” “A well run event that taught me a lot about what people are doing ‘out there’” One Word Participants were asked to give one word to sum up how they felt about the event / course. These words have been inputted into Wordle (www.wordle.net). Wordle generates word diagrams that give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the text. From this you can clearly see that informative and inspiring were stated most frequently.

Mentimeter Mentimeter is an easy to use web based presentation tool. It is a secure platform that can be used with different sized audiences to make presentations more interactive.

We took the opportunity to use Mentimeter to interact with delegates and find out their views on the current situation.

A total of 71 delegates took part at all events. Some of the results can be seen below:

Further information Further information and a short video of the day is available on the Public Health Network Cymru website or by contacting publichealth.network@wales.nhs.uk