Arts Well delivered a programme of participatory arts activities aimed at improving wellbeing of Cornwall Council staff, who were referred by their Health and Wellbeing Service.

The project, which was a pilot, aimed to improve mental wellbeing for participants and enable them to build a personal ‘creative toolkit’ to help them manage stress and anxiety.

We ran 8 sessions between 4.00 and 6.00 pm on a weekday evening during the autumn of 2019.
Sessions included creative writing and journaling, mindful doodling, collaging, printmaking, clay, kintsugi, map making, creating a wellbeing playlist and making a zine. The sessions were delivered by Arts Well’s Director, Jayne Howard, and freelance practitioner Stephanie Thomason.

We had twelve participants, and the majority attended every session. One person only came to two sessions, citing work pressures as a reason why she couldn’t attend, and three people missed one or two sessions.

We used the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) before and after the course and 10 out of 12 participants showed a significant improvement in their wellbeing.

“I hope this course gets absorbed in what Cornwall Council offers for health and wellbeing of staff.”

“Demonstrated that having to concentrate on something different turns the ‘work brain’ off and is beneficial. Learning new skills outside of work, different approach to tasks e.g. not as hard or difficult as first think. It’s okay to feel outside of your comfort zone.”

“Appropriate for anyone – don’t need to be arty. Good way of dedicating time to yourself after work.”

“Has made such a difference to how I spend my free time and how I manage my mental wellbeing.”

The total cost of the project was £1,450, but this did not cover all of Arts Well’s costs to deliver the programme.

The plan was to consider further roll-out of the project after evaluation, but as the pandemic hit in Spring 2020, these plans were put on hold and have not yet been revisited.