🎨 WHO/Europe and the EU Expand Integration of Arts and Culture into Health Systems

The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe), in collaboration with the European Union (EU), is stepping up efforts to integrate arts and culture into national health systems — recognising their powerful role in enhancing health, well-being, recovery, and resilience.

This initiative focuses on supporting Eastern Partnership countries — including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine — through targeted capacity-building activities and structured workshops. These events aim to catalyse country-led action and multisector collaboration, moving beyond fragmented projects toward institutionalised arts-in-health practices anchored in national health priorities and strategies.

🧠 Arts for Health: A Growing Public Health Approach

Health systems across the European region face complex challenges — from demographic change and workforce shortages to the less visible burdens of trauma, social isolation, and chronic stress. Recognising this, WHO/Europe and the EU are advancing creative, people-centred solutions that complement traditional biomedical approaches.

Arts and culture can play many roles in health care:

• Supporting mental well-being through music, dance, storytelling, and visual arts

• Reducing social isolation by connecting people in community settings

• Enhancing recovery and dignity in care by addressing emotional and psychosocial needs

• Fostering healthy ageing, rehabilitation, and social inclusion through participatory creative activities

From museum visits for loneliness prevention to dance sessions for individuals living with neurological conditions, arts-based practices bring holistic, evidence-informed approaches into everyday health services.

🏛️ Workshops and Capacity Building

Regional training workshops — part of the Building Arts Capacity for Health (BACH) component of the EU-funded Health Resilience in the Eastern Partnership programme — help bridge sectors by bringing together health professionals, policy-makers, artists, civil society actors, and researchers.

These workshops offer:

• Practical tools for co-designing and evaluating arts-in-health initiatives

• Governance, ethics, and monitoring frameworks for sustainable implementation

• Case studies and peer learning from real-world creative health collaborations

• Strategies to integrate arts into mental health, workforce resilience, and community care services

Participants from ministries of health and culture, local authorities, academic institutions, and civic groups work together to explore how creative approaches can be systematically incorporated into national health agendas.

🤝 Cross-Sector Collaboration for Health and Culture

Experts emphasise that sustainable arts-in-health programmes depend on collaboration across sectors, including health, culture, education, and civil society. Through coordinated planning and shared funding mechanisms, countries can make creative approaches a routine part of health service delivery.

Such collaboration can help health systems:

• Improve mental health and psychosocial support

• Strengthen community engagement and inclusion

• Enhance service innovation for diverse populations

• Align creative health initiatives with broader reforms

🛠️ Next Steps and Regional Impact

Following the initial workshops, WHO/Europe plans to support:

• Pilot implementation of arts-in-health initiatives

• Development of monitoring and evaluation tools

• Communities of practice for ongoing learning and exchange

• Integration of creative health approaches into national mental health strategies and health system reforms

By harnessing the transformative power of arts and culture, WHO/Europe and the EU aim to help build more resilient, inclusive, and people-centred health systems across Eastern Europe — addressing both clinical and social determinants of health in innovative ways.