“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” – from the WHO Constitution
In the wake of a September 19 publication in the Lancet, the World Health Organisation (WHO) formally announced on Monday the forthcoming Lancet Global Series on the health benefits of the arts, a research collaboration with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab. The latter is an offshoot of Community Jameel, a Saudi Arabia-based non-governmental public service foundation. The series was launched on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and will no doubt augment a WHO 2019 study, which presented some evidence that immersion in the arts promotes good health, prevents illness and can treat both acute and chronic conditions.
The contribution of the arts to particularly mental well-being has long been known, even if it has not always been practised. Artist, art historian, and educator Akima McPherson made a case for it in her Eye on Art column, “We all need some art therapy”, which this newspaper published on March 19 this year. Referring to Guyanese artists who spoke of the benefits of art in their healing journeys and processes, she pointed to the need for art therapists here in view of the country’s high suicide rate, violence being commonplace, and general mental health issues. “… People need healing,” she concluded. “… We all need therapy.”
Art as therapy, especially music and dance, has been successfully used in the treatment of brain disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia for many years. There is published research which shows the effectiveness of this form of therapy among the aged. Art therapy is also proven in the treatment of depression, stress, and trauma, as well as to mitigate the symptoms of autism.
The abovementioned collaboration, the WHO hopes, will universalise art’s necessity to both mental and physical health. It aims to dispel the misconception that the arts are not as critical to good health as nutrition, exercise and rest. While music, dance, writing, drama, crafting and creating art have proven therapeutic qualities, visiting galleries, museums and theatres have been less studied, though there is every indication that they should have almost the same effect.
Already, however, there are institutions that have gone beyond the notion of the arts as therapy. There are programmes and centres devoted to the meshing of the arts and health in some of the top universities in the world, like Duke, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers in the US; King’s College, Sheffield and Queen Mary in the UK among others. In some instances, prior to entering a university’s Health Faculty for studies, students are offered immersion courses, which include visual as well as performing arts. In other cases, there are arts in health courses and advanced degrees.
Meanwhile, the WHO was quick to note that the role of arts in supporting health and well-being was not a new concept. Though science and art have been seen as opposites for hundreds of years, the study of ancient human societies, their culture and their development has shown them as enmeshed. In films as well as works of fiction and nonfiction, the medicine man, witch doctor, shaman, or soothsayer, by whichever name he or she was called, invariably performed healing ceremonies and rituals to the beat of drums or other types of music.
As the organisation noted in its 2019 report, “Artistic expression grew in lockstep with human cultural development and has long played an integral part in how we teach, learn, communicate and heal. Since our earliest ancestors began telling stories to make sense of the world, we have evolved to learn from narrative, be it through visual media, song or performance.” It was, no doubt, with this in mind that the WHO had tested arts interventions in “mental health and suicide prevention, maternal health, blindness prevention and quality of care, in addition to historic efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention.”
No timeframe has been given for the conclusion of the series, which must be of supreme interest to the global medical community, as well as anyone interested in a healthy lifestyle. The exception of course will be the pharmaceutical industry, which for the most part has very little interest in anything beyond fat pockets. One can expect ‘big pharma’ to attempt to denigrate these efforts with much the same vigour that they oppose traditional medicine. Any great measure of success on either of these fronts, some of which is already apparent, will obviously hit them hard.
Governments, on the other hand, should be paying scrupulous attention and be unwavering in their support of the policies and programmes that will eventually emerge. Furthermore, governments, and ours in particular, need not wait for the publication of the series to begin endorsing the arts, respecting all artists and investing in art therapy, perhaps by way of scholarships. In the end it will redound to the benefit of the population and that ought to be the government’s main focus.