Art, Health and Well-Being
This chapter consists of two parts, by different authors, each invited to contribute independently to a chapter on ‘Art, Health and Well-Being’. David Haley in Part 1 argues that an expanded dynamic notion of art could provide the creative dialogue needed to value disparate readings of well-being. Peter Senior in Part 2 summarizes the important part played to date by the arts for health in the UK and elsewhere.
Children’s well-being in the primary school: A capability approach and community psychology perspective
This qualitative research with UK primary school children reveals their own subjective perceptions of well-being. In an educational context, the development of a theoretical framework towards understanding well-being is provided by capturing the voices of children through creative and visual methods. The data enabled nine key themes to emerge which have been applied to the Capability Approach and Community Psychology. The flexible approach also provides a practical means for practitioners to further understand and support children in an educational context.
Dying in the dark: sunshine, gender and outcomes in myocardial infarction
We report a natural experiment that took place in a cardiac intensive care unit (CICU). We had been alerted to the possibility that sunny rooms would be conducive to better outcomes by our findings in the psychiatric unit, and by reports that depressed cardiac patients did less well than those in normal mood. The 628 subjects were patients admitted directly to the CICU with a first attack of myocardial infarction (MI). Outcomes of those treated in sunny rooms and those treated in dull rooms were retrospectively compared for fatal outcomes and for length of stay in the CICU. Patients stayed a shorter time in the sunny rooms, but the significant difference was confined to women (2.3 days in sunny rooms, 3.3 days in dull rooms). Mortality in both sexes was consistently higher in dull rooms (39/335 dull, 21/293 sunny). We conclude that illumination may be relevant to outcome in MI, and that this natural experiment merits replication.