Art for Wellbeing Everywhere- Even Prisons?

The word 'well-being' was once accompanied by audible eye-rolling. This recent BBC report about the use of art as a rehabilitation method for prisoners in HMP Erlestoke started me thinking about how attitudes to art for wellbeing have -and haven't- changed in a decade.

Photo Credit Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse

Rolling back a decade to my own 2016 work in community engagement, I visited a range of community groups - including a prison - to use historical stories and arts activities to engage people in the heritage of place and people. We made dolls out of spoons as a nod to the Gressenhall Workhouse inmates named on the 1841 census . I remember that at the time, the project, entitled Creating A Stir, did just that- some people questioned the value of creative health work with prisoners. There was a suggestion they didn't deserve it.

I wonder why people felt like that? What entitles a person to live in a state of well-being?

I reckon most of my fellow Generation X-ers will agree that when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s, concerns about 'wellbeing' leaned more towards 'you're-not-seriously-injured-stop-making-a-fuss' than 'how-did-surviving-that-potentially-traumatic-incident-make-you-feel'. And speaking of entitlement, the well-known Boomer Generation which preceded me has, in my experience, an even stiffer upper lip when under duress, i.e. we should all stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get on with some good, honest, hard WORK - then, and only then , if you absolutely MUST, can you think about silly things like wellbeing.

Continuing with that logic, if a regular guy doing his best and minding his business has no time for navel-gazing (navel-gazing is akin to wellbeing in some people's minds, amiright?), then prisoners should jolly well be the last people on earth to be afforded the right to it.

In a way, they have a point. No, honestly, hear me out.

Funnily enough, acting on the phrase 'get up, dress, up, show up' can frequently do the trick; getting active, getting outside, and getting out of your own head. Putting others before yourself can be an absolute tonic- just ask any dog-walker. So I understand it when people are reluctant to embrace the notion of wellbeing, finding it a bit self-absorbed or too touchy-feely. I get it.

But let's turn it around. Wellbeing isn't wrapping 'poor little diddums' up in cotton wool, it's a preventative. In the same way that cleaning your teeth every day prevents tooth decay, creative activities that benefit personal wellbeing will reduce loneliness, depression and cognitive decline. Don't just take my word for it, it's scientifically proven, as written about in this article and many more.

In Norfolk (UK) alone, recent JSNA stats show that roughly 53,000 people aged 65+ (those 'I'm fine, thanks' Boomers) live alone. This has huge health impacts: chronic isolation increases risks for high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and early onset dementia.

Photo credit Rachel Duffield Community Art Club 2024

Activities for wellbeing - and creative community arts activities rank highly here - help diminish loneliness, which in turn helps with those devastating conditions.

Which in turn saves the NHS money, saves family carers from exhaustion, and keeps people happy, healthy and able to contribute for much, much longer into old age.

According to the World Health Organisation,

"Wellbeing is a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Similar to health, it is a resource for daily life and is determined by social, economic and environmental conditions. Well-being encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose".

Read that last sentence again: the ability to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose.

Let's return to those 'undeserving' prisoners benefitting from wellbeing activities. Arts activities align perfectly with the goal of rehabilitation; to equip inmates with the skills and support needed to lead productive lives post-release, thereby reducing recidivism and improving public safety.

If wellbeing means that happier, healthier people are living longer, safer lives, what's not to like?

Photo Credit Rachel Duffield Creating A Stir 2016

Rachel Duffield is the Founder of Community Art Clubs CIC. Her podcast Art is Good For You is available on YouTube & Spotify. Her signature Art Life Journalling Course runs twice yearly and information about this, and her partnership working with and for museum, gallery and school communities can be found here on her website. You can contact Rachel on WhatsApp 07943476788, via email rachelduffieldart@gmail.com or by DM on Facebook.