Welcome to the International Health Humanities Network

The International Health Humanities Network provides a global platform for innovative humanities scholars, medical, health and social care professionals, voluntary sector workers and creative practitioners to join forces with informal and family carers, service-users and the wider self-caring public to explore, celebrate and develop new approaches in advancing health and wellbeing through the arts and humanities in hospitals, residential and community settings.

Professor Paul Crawford defines this fast-growing field of Health Humanities as follows: "Health Humanities champions the application of the arts and humanities in interdisciplinary research, education and social action to inform and transform health and social care, health or well-being. It aims to be inclusive of viewpoints and contributions from within and beyond medicine; value the experiences and resources of the public; explore diverse approaches to achieving, maintaining or recovering quality of life; and strives for demonstrable impacts, not least in providing new evidence and insights for the education or practices of those planning, organising or working for the health of any population."

Supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, this initiative begins a new era in developing the way that arts and humanities knowledge and practice can enhance health and wellbeing.

On this website, members can log the impact of language, literature, history, theology, law, philosophy, visual, performing and multimedia arts, as well as area studies, media and cultural studies, for example, in enhancing the health and wellbeing of society.

Informal carers, service users and the self-caring public are invited to share their ideas of how arts and humanities have benefited them and may benefit others experiencing a particular challenge to their health and wellbeing.

Nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, psychologists, dentists, physiotherapists, social workers, childcare and school workers, alternative and complimentary therapists, as well as those who have traditionally drawn on the arts and humanities such as music therapists, dance and drama therapists, poetry therapists, art therapists, bibliotherapists and sports therapists, are invited to join and report on successful, innovative projects and events in this field.

Whether you are giving or receiving information on this website, we hope you find new people and practical resources around the world that help bring the human back into health.

Things you can do...

• Become a member and register your areas of interest
• Find people with shared interests across the globe
• Write a short impact statement of relevant work or narrative of health and wellbeing achieved through the arts and humanities
• Access podcasts and other resources and links
• Rate impact statements and ideas

Major New Book: Health Humanities

A major new book by Paul Crawford, Brian Brown, Charley Baker, Victoria Tischler and Brian Abrams provides the world's first manifesto for the new field of health humanities.

Health Humanities draws upon the multiple and expanding fields of enquiry that link health and social care disciplines with the arts and humanities. It aims to encourage innovation and novel cross-disciplinary explorations of how the arts and humanities can inform and transform healthcare, health and well-being. It calls for a much richer body of work that breaks out of limited applications of the arts and humanities to any specific healthcare discipline, as in the medical humanities, which to date has been largely preoccupied with training medical practitioners.

As a more inclusive and applied field of activity with a fast-growing international community of researchers, health humanities looks to generate diverse and even radical approaches for creating healthier and more compassionate societies. This book aims to assist readers to consider how the arts and humanities can be applied more ambitiously in generating well-being.

Book Details: Crawford, P., Brown, B., Baker, C., Tischler, V. & Abrams, B. (2015) Health Humanities. Palgrave: London.

ISBN-10: 1137282606
ISBN-13: 978-1137282606

Academics join forces with Aardman to tackle mental health crisis

Find out about the "What's going on with Everyone?" project

New mental health campaign with Aardman reaches over 17m people within 4 months of launch

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the What’s Up With Everyone? campaign was led by Professor Paul with research teams at the University of Nottingham Loughborough University, the London School of Economics and Political Science; the Mental Health Foundation, Happy Space and Buzz Consulting.

The campaign includes a series of five animated films created with and for young people by multi-award-winning independent studio Aardman (Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep etc.) about dealing with life’s challenges before they impact mental health.

The five animations cover issues such as loneliness and isolation, perfectionism, competitiveness, independence and issues surrounding social media. A companion website provides online resources including advice and support to those who identify with the issues or are concerned about others struggling with them.

The most visited resources on the site have been those dedicated to loneliness and perfectionism, attracting 20,000 visits, which represents 53% of the website’s total traffic to date. Overall, the campaign reached over five million young people on social media.