Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy

In November 2022, GM NHS Integrated Care launched the Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy, detailing how GM plans to become the first city region in the world to realise the power of creativity, culture and heritage in addressing inequities and improving the health and well-being of its residents.
The GM Creative Health strategy sets out the importance of creative health in supporting GM to become a Marmot city region and in delivering against the recommendations of the Independent Inequalities Commission by enhancing well-being and equity; focusing on people and communities; and emphasising preventative approaches. The strategy highlights the role of creative health in delivering against NHSE’s priorities, including Core20PLUS5 and in delivering against the 2022 Greater Manchester Strategy, helping GM to become a greener, fairer and more prosperous city region.
Mirroring the broader GM approach to health, the GM Creative Health Strategy adopts a population health approach across the life course, setting out how creative health can support childhood development, prepare children for school, help us into work, improve our working lives, protect us from illness and assist in managing our long-term conditions. And as we age, how creative, cultural and heritage activities can keep us healthy, socially connected and living well at home.
The strategy also highlights where creative approaches can contribute to specific clinical pathways, for example, the contribution singing can make to overcoming breathlessness and anxiety in people with Long Covid; how dance can help to reduce falls and emergency hospital admissions and how engagement with creative activity can tackle at least half of the known risk factors for dementia.
A three-year Creative Health delivery plan (2023-26) is currently under development.