Developing roadmaps for advancing practice, research, and policy in the arts and health

Despite arts engagement being a ubiquitous human behaviour across human history, research and awareness on the health benefits of engagement are still emerging, accelerating over the past decade. Building on the evidence and research challenges outlined in the first paper of this Lancet collection, this Review puts forward a series of roadmaps for advancing research, policy, and practice to enable appropriate and effective integration of the arts into health and wellbeing systems globally. First and foremost, we advocate for the fundamental principle that all individuals, regardless of their characteristics and location, should have regular opportunities to engage in the arts, proposing policy and research steps to monitor and achieve this goal. Second, we emphasise the importance of implementing population-level strategies that use the arts as part of broader portfolios of approaches to help address the fundamental determinants of health inequities. Third, we underscore the necessity of developing and embedding across society diverse public-health pathways that connect individuals living with or at risk of health challenges to the arts within communities. Fourth, we argue for more clinical innovation in integrating bespoke evidence-based arts and creative arts therapies programmes into clinical care across the care pathway. Finally, we stress the crucial need for enhanced cross-sectoral stakeholder engagement and more strategic investment and research to facilitate the development and dissemination of the necessary tools, training, and evidence to achieve these objectives.