NEW BOOK: Creative Health in Systems: The People, Priorities, and Challenges Shaping Integration by Jane Hearst

Creative Health in Systems: The People, Priorities, and Challenges Shaping Integration by Jane Hearst

How do arts, creativity, and culture enter the healthcare system in a way that prevents them from remaining isolated projects and allows them to become part of how health and well-being are conceptualised and supported more broadly?

The newly published book Creative Health in Systems focuses precisely on this question. Edited by Jane Hearst, this collection of texts views Creative Health (Creative Health) not as an isolated method or intervention, but as part of a larger system where healthcare, public health, local government, cultural organisations, researchers, practitioners, and communities meet.

The 53 short chapters of the book cover very diverse parts of the system: occupational therapy, nursing, primary care, mental health, children and young people's well-being, "creative ageing", hospital work, and healthcare workers' well-being and retention. The authors include healthcare leaders, creative sector practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and individuals who know the field through peer support or personal lived experience.

What is particularly important, however, is that the book does not focus solely on opportunities. Dedicated attention is also given to the challenges currently facing the field of creative health: short-term project funding, complex governance and division of responsibility, unequal access, and the question of how to engage in meaningful collaboration with the people for whom the services are created.

This book is undoubtedly an interesting and important contribution to the Estonian context as well.

When discussing the impact of creative arts therapies and the arts on health, conversations often revolve around whether and how they work. Less frequently asked is what the next step is – who is responsible, who funds it, how do different sectors communicate with each other, what is the quality, and how does knowledge of an effective intervention translate into a sustainable service or policy?

It is precisely here that this book can provide valuable food for thought.

At the same time, when reading the book, one must consider that its systemic description is based primarily on the healthcare and cultural framework of England. The Estonian system is different, and certainly not all of the described solutions can be directly transferred here. However, the book helps us see how many different people, institutions, and decisions are needed for the role of the arts in health to move from isolated good projects towards a more systemic approach. Why do we recommend this book?

Because the next key question in the field of arts and health is no longer just – can art support health?, but increasingly – how do we build systems where this knowledge can function truly sustainably?

DOI: [https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003666424](https://) Creative Health in Systems: The People, Priorities, and Challenges Shaping Integration Edited by Jane Hearst Routledge, 1st edition Published 21 August 2026; bibliographic copyright year 2027.