Accessibility and advocacy in health humanities

This chapter focuses on access to and advocacy for the arts as fundamental drivers in achieving sustainable change in the provision and experience of health and social care. The chapter is divided into three sections. First, advocacy and the patient voice are explored through the prism of the patient–practitioner relationship and person-centered practice. An example is introduced of practitioners advocating for the use of creative methodologies in health care to enable patients to (re)present themselves in context. Second, the focus is on practitioners mediating and supporting access for patients to arts and humanities activities through social prescribing. The final section of the chapter addresses the need for caution in applying a creative discourse in practice. Economic rationalization, it is argued, should not be prioritized over connecting with the art, the emotional, relational, and affective aspects of creativity. The chapter provides the reader with an understanding of the arts as a conduit for enabling advocacy to flourish, for opening up new ways to communicate, of seeing and experiencing the world as a foundation for making the social dimensions of people’s lives relevant and visible within health and social care.