Embedding Creative Health in Northern Ireland: A Co-Created Policy Roadmap

Our primary research interest is to investigate how a devolved nation, Northern Ireland, can cocreate and embed a sustainable, evidence-based Creative Health framework to address its profound and unique regional health inequalities. This Co-Lab Policy Network will function as our core research methodology, employing co-creation to generate a new evidence base on systematically integrating cultural assets into a devolved public health system. Northern Ireland faces the most significant mental health crisis in the UK; alongside persistent health disparities directly linked to decades of socio-economic disadvantage. While there is overwhelming evidence for the efficacy of creative health approaches in improving patient outcomes, and, staff and carers’ wellbeing, a critical policy gap persists. The potential for transformative collaboration between our vibrant arts sector and the devolved Health and Social Care (HSC) system remains unrealised due to the lack of a strategic, cross-departmental policy framework. This research directly addresses this gap.