Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Music Therapy Master's degree programme at Aalborg University was established in 1982 and is the only one of its kind in Denmark. The aim of the programme is to provide students with as broad and thorough knowledge as possible of the different areas of music therapy, i.e. music therapy in psychotherapeutic fields of work, medical fields, and special education fields.
Besides the Master's Degree, Aalborg University also has a music therapy research department, which is centered around the international research school, established in 1996, as well as the research clinic, established in 1994 in a collaboration between the university and Aalborg Psychiatric Hospital.

The NEO Educational Program on Art as a Therapeutic Tool aims to teach various specialists the techniques necessary to apply art into their work with adults, in one-to-one sessions or in group sessions. Art therapy can be used as a complementary technique to traditional mental health therapy. The goal of art therapy is to manage behaviors to understand emotions, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase self-esteem. The training program is structured in four modules and is addressed to psychologists.

Every year since 2013 in hospitals across Lithuania, the project called Art for well-being is organised for the health care staff and consists of silk painting workshops. Health care workers participate in a creative art programmes supervised by professional artists from Kaunas, Panevėžys and Vilnius. The creative results are presented in public exhibitions.
Health care staff face a variety of stressors at work, they experience enhanced fatigue, tension and a burden of responsibility. Participation in arts activities has a positive impact on well-being amongst health care staff, on the quality of services they provide, and on their patients’ well-being.

An important direction of MO's sustainability policy is represented by the emotional health classes -be neriMO: 4 experiences- where participants are invited to know their body, calm their mind and feel better surrounded by works of Art. Together with the psychologist and MO educator participants can discover the connection with themselves, their feelings and reactions to them. Participants are invited to calm down when the museum itself is the quietest, outside the museum's working hours, on Tuesday evenings, so they can experience MO exhibition just by themselves.

Speak with me project aims to develop a theoretical-practical pilot path that can be created and then re-proposed to students, teachers and parents in Turin schools with an experimentation phase in Moncalieri, in particular the ISS Majorana which in recent years has often been affected by cases of suicide among students.
The project stems from the awareness that juvenile suicide is a socio-health emergency with devastating consequences for communities, but too often overlooked and underestimated, linked to a situation of malaise and suffering exacerbated by the Covid-19 emergency and that rarely schools, institutions and communities succeed to manage and prevent, lacking the right tools and often blocked by fear and fear of emulation.
However, the evidence shows that keeping quiet is by no means a strategy that improves the situation. Often then, those who deal with children at risk of self-harm or even suicide do not know how to behave or what to say. Educators, teachers, parents and young people rarely have a clear idea of ​​what mental health is, how to best manage their emotions, how to recognize in oneself and other signs of stress, burnout and excessive fatigue because it is drifting towards situations in that you end up losing control of your actions is a gradual process that people often lose total control over.
The Speak with me model wants to encourage the training of people such as teachers, educators, parents and young people who, thanks to a path of training and work on themselves, can also become gatekeepers: sentinels in their communities, families, classes, friendships and social relationships to identify the malaise and suffering that leads to risky behaviors in their children, students and friends and thus be able to help them in the right way.
In addition to the experiential and psychological support dedicated to the younger generation, the project is also implementing the activities: two paths realized with the methodologies of Playback Theatre and Social and Community Theater; a streaming screening of the film "5 Days Out" organized with the Turin Museum of Cinema Association for 300 young people; a series of meetings with parents and teachers in Milan, Venice, Rome and Ancona; and a methodological document to reproduce the "Parla con me" pilot project in schools in Turin and Piedmont.

Magic Moments was a test experience conducted with the Cuneo Healthcare Authority (Italy) which investigated the impact of aesthetic experience (visiting a cultural attraction – the cupola of the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, Italy) by using two instruments: one on the reducing stress (production of cortisol levels) and one on the increase of perceived wellbeing. A sample of 100 participants were administered a structured questionnaire on their subjective wellbeing and a saliva sample was taken to measure the level of cortisol before and after the visit.

Te Ora Auaha is a national network and resource for anyone interested in the contribution of the arts to health and wellbeing. Te Ora Auaha is an open to individuals, organisations and collectives that are interested in the relationship between creativity and well-being. Their members work across diverse disciplines and contexts including the arts, health, education, community, social care, local government, research and policy environments. Te Ora Auaha provides a national focus for advocacy, research, connecting and strengthening this diverse, dynamic and interdisciplinary field. Their digital hub creates a shared platform to connect people working in isolation across the country.

Within the project, 12 art interventions were realized by several artists at the location of KBC Zagreb: in Rebro Hospital and Clinic for Women's Diseases and Obstetrics (Petrova) and in Clinic for Children's Diseases Zagreb (Klaićeva). As part of the project, during February 2019, an education programme for artists was held, where the following experts spoke: Dr. Art. Melinda Šefčić (Art in the hospital space), MD. Filip Đerke (Neuroscience and art), social engineer work by Matilda Franjić and B.Sc. soc. Viktorija Vlašić (Prevention and preventive work with children in the hospital area). The research component of the project was carried out in collaboration with three authors and the results were presented at the professional-exhibition meeting in the Club of the Croatian Society of Fine Artists.

Art for human well-being is a pilot project funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. Its aim is to increase the accessibility of culture throughout the country. The creative partnership, between professionals in the fields of art, education, health and social services, develops a new approach to the importance of art and the concept of health in the country. A study was carried out to assess how art and artistic activities affect a person's psychosocial and spiritual well-being.

Well Good is a preventative health programme funded by the NHS on awareness of smoking issues for upper primary children. Every year, the Well Good tour reach 116 primary schools in Dundee, Perth & Kinross and Angus, exploring issues around tobacco and safe choices. The organisers work with children to create a special performance at the end of each day for the rest of the school and parents/carers.