Public Opinion on the Health Benefits of Creative Activities
The health benefits of engaging in cultural activities are well evidenced. The frequently quoted All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing inquiry and report tells us arts activities help to alleviate anxiety, depression and stress.
The Scottish Government’s Culture Strategy aims to open up the potential of culture as a transformative opportunity across society, in areas including health and wellbeing.
In new research conducted by Survation on behalf of Culture Counts, we've measured public opinion on the health benefits of cultural activities. Our survey also captures the likelihood of uptake of social prescribing. Our survey sampled 1,010 residents aged 16+ living in Scotland. Fieldwork took place on 4-9 December 2020.
The chart below shows 80% of Scots agree there are physical and/or mental health benefits to engaging with arts, creative and cultural activities.
Just a Number
Our interactions with healthcare services evolve as we age. We've looked closer at age and perception of the health benefits of creative activities. The interactive chart below lets you see how opinion changes (or doesn’t change much at all) depending on the age of the respondee.
What’s interesting about this data is that it shows opinion barely shifts across age groups. There’s only a 4% difference in opinion between the 16-25 age group and the +65s.
Social Prescribing
Some GPs now offer 'social prescriptions' for people experiencing mental health issues. Our survey digs into the perception of social prescribing of arts, sport and historic environment activities.
Household Income
Household Income is an important factor to consider in this question. Would those with greater household income decline an offer of social prescription? For example, would someone who can already afford a gym membership say no to free gym classes? Using our interactive chart below you can see household income’s relationship to uptake.
It’s notable that when asked about Sports activities, the highest household income category is more likely to take up social prescribing than those in the lowest income category. With 65% of those in households with income of £40,000+ answering ‘Likely”, compared to 50% of those in households with income less than £20,000.
The opposite is true when asked about the arts. 49% of those in households with an income of Under £20,000 said they would be “Likely” to take up arts activities, compared to 46% of those from households with income of £40,000 or above.
Cross Departmental Working
The health benefits offered by the cultural sector are well-known and both culture and health are eager to work together more. The opportunity to connect and the financial resources are currently missing and we must find a way to build these connections and strategically plan for the future. In order to ensure a cultural offer supporting health, wellbeing and quality of life we need a resourced action-plan in every Health and Social Care Partnership in Scotland.
In our Crowd-Sourced Manifesto for 2021 we're calling for a commitment to cross-departmental working between Health and Culture, with a resourced action-plan to ensure an arts and culture offer supporting health, wellbeing and quality of life in all Health and Social Care Partnership areas in Scotland.
Community link workers are a good thing, though not every community has one and access to culture for health is currently determined by postcode. The local cultural plan/group would look similar to the ‘Paisley Partnership Group’ (who were originally brought together from all over the area to work on a bid for the city of culture), culture and health planning partnerships would include for example general practitioners, cultural trusts, care homes, prisons; community link workers, women’s aid; local social enterprises, social workers, health visitors, artists and cultural freelancers.
Learn More
The Crowd-Souced Manifesto for 2021
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