Partners

Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre

Central to the work of Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre is our commitment to public access to and engagement with the arts. Uillinn is committed to developing and implementing an artistic programme that places public engagement, the right to cultural expression and social inclusion at its centre. 

The Arts for Health Programme Strategy is aligned with Uillinn West Cork Art Centre’s strategic objectives and serve as an example of programming and engagement which:

• Inspires and ignites
• Excels as a regional hub
• Strengthen the core with a programme that has been strategically invested in
• Shines a light on the exceptional artists and work involved 

Health Service Executive (HSE)

Cork South Community Work Department 

Cork South Community Work Department develops innovative programmes which respond to the many factors that determine the health of individuals and communities. We support a variety of Arts and Health programmes across different age groups and care groups within the health services and the health-related community and voluntary sector. 

We operate from a community development model and perspective and are committed to the development of an Arts and Health agenda that will effectively contribute to the promotion of individual and community health and wellbeing. Cork South Community Work Department actively develops relevant partnerships with other statutory, community and voluntary services to enhance the resources available for projects, to develop projects and to ensure the most effective outcomes for participants / service users.

Arts for Health Partnership Programme, West Cork has provided and continues to provide an evolving model of excellence in relation to the development of a managed arts programme working with older people in hospital and day care settings, and has the potential to expand into the community, working with older people at home as well as with carers.

The HSE Health Promotion Strategic Framework introduces a model that illustrates the main structural elements of health promotion for the HSE. This work takes place in three settings; Health Service, Community and Education. The Arts for Health Partnership Programme West Cork provides services consistent with this model in which: 

1. Health Services are reoriented through community participation, mobilisation and the provision of socially inclusive services.
2. Supportive environments for health are created using multi-strand approaches to promote and enhance health through lifestyle, behavioural and social-environmental approaches and through full engagement in collaborative partnerships.

This approach supports the ethical principles set out in Healthy Ireland, A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013-2025. The principles of equity, fairness, proportionality, openness and accountability, solidarity and sustainability are evident in the strategy. It also responds to the 2013 National Positive Ageing Strategy: Positive Ageing – Starts Now!, which seeks to promote the development of opportunities for engagement and participation of people of all ages in a range of activities including the arts. Furthermore, the work of the Arts for Health Partnership Programme, West Cork is congruent with the Healthy Ireland framework for actions with its emphasis on partnership and cross-sectoral working, empowering people, and communities, through research, evidence, monitoring, reporting and evaluation. This strategic approach ensures that an active meaningful and meaning-making life can be enjoyed through to older age across the eleven settings in which the programme operates.

HSE West Cork Day Care Centres

The vision of the Healthy Ireland 2013-2025, “where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential, where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone’s responsibility” (Healthy Ireland, A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013 – 2015).

In keeping with this vision, participation in the Arts for Health Partnership Programme is a core component of Day Care Centre social care activity in the five West Cork centres. For service users it empowers people to reach their potential, learn new skills and enables clients, at all levels of dependency, to participate in an activity which enhances their cognitive, emotional and social wellbeing and produces positive mental and physical outcomes across the client spectrum. In keeping with the Arts for Health Strategy, the Arts for Health programme promotes participation and cross-sectoral work.

HSE Community Hospitals

Community Hospitals in Schull, Dunmanway, Castletownbere and Skibbereen provide services which include continuing care, convalescent care, respite care and palliative care. Other services, including activity programmes, are an integral part of the operating philosophy of a community hospital complex. 

There are over 119,000 people over the age of 65 in the Cork and Kerry region, i.e. 15% of the national over 65 population. (CSO, 2022) Nationally, this is expected to increase by 24.6% by 2051. In the same period the number of people over 80 is expected to increase by 270% (The Irish Times, 2019). Ageing on this scale is unprecedented in Irish history. At the same time the number of dependent older people is expected to rise. There are 194 patients cared for in the five community hospitals in West Cork. Bantry General Hospital provides for extra patients in long term care. The Arts for Health Partnership Programme has become part and parcel of the activities in long stay units throughout. Working with the arts recognises and values the creativity of older people, enhances the self-worth and dignity of the participants as well as being a pleasurable experience. Arts for Health helps us in our vision for the older adult of “improving the health and quality of life of the individuals and communities we serve” as set out in Ageing with Confidence: a strategy for the people of Cork and Kerry. Arts for Health is an essential element in the social care needs of older adults in residential care and is an integral part of our activities programme which helps us to meet the National Quality Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland as set out by the Health Information & Quality Authority (HIQA). Involvement in arts and cultured activities makes a difference to the quality of life of our residents. Arts for Health is a large contributor to this. The programme stimulates our residents to express themselves through the medium of art, poetry, and music. This is a new opportunity for most of our residents. The existence of an arts programme in community hospitals fulfils the requirement to meet HIQA standards.

Cork County Education and Training Board (CETB)

As a driving force in education and training in Cork we value the partnership approach that the Arts for Health model offers. It allows us to promote arts and health as a valuable lifelong learning tool. In line with our vision of providing high quality services which are innovative, responsive and inclusive, Cork ETB rolled out a QQI Level 5 Arts for Healthcare professionals programme in 2015 and proposed similar programmes going forward.

Cork County Council’s Arts Office

The Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028 articulates the importance of dynamic, attractive, and resilient town centres, of a built environment and cultural life of the highest standard, and of the potential of marine leisure-oriented towns and their role in tourism. The Plan also emphasises the arts’ critical role in placemaking, social inclusion, employment generation, and quality of life and the need to address facilities gaps to effectively support those functions.