Arts & Health Conference

Following on from our presentation at the International Federation on Ageing’s Conference in Melbourne last May ANHLC has been accepted to conduct a workshop at the 2nd conference of Arts & Health Australia in November 2010.

One of the streams of the conference, The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing, is Arts and Community Health, defined as ‘arts and health programs that encourage community participation and regeneration; that showcase sustainable community partnerships; and impact positively on health and wellbeing’.

The Neighbourhood Houses which responded, in late 2009, to the survey on programs offered to older people showed that many of the 400+ programs they offered were arts based. Further research provided some evidence of the health related outcomes of participation in such projects so it is clear ANHLC can tell a good story about the positive effects of participation on the health and wellbeing of older Victorians.

Anne Learmonth is now seeking further information about these positive outcomes and will start contacting Houses over the next couple of weeks and would welcome any information, particularly from those Houses which did not respond to the survey.

For this conference she will not be solely discussing older people’s participation, although this will be a focus, and is taking a very broad interpretation of arts. She would be interested in any evidence you can provide about the positive effect of participation in any of the programs you offer.

If your House has a success story to tell or has already documented it’s programs please contact Anne, especially if you know of a program participant (or more than one) who would be interested in being interviewed. This could be done either at your House or over the phone.

Please email Anne Learmonth on assistant@anhlc.asn.au and let her know when she can contact you.