In a survey commissioned by the Leeds-based consumer health accelerator, Elmwood LaunchPod, respondents overwhelmingly indicated that creativity could be the answer to improving the nation’s health and mental wellbeing and reducing pressures on the NHS.
The survey was commissioned to understand the importance people place on proactively managing their health and wellbeing and examined whether new technologies and creative activities can have a positive impact on the nations’ health and benefit the health service.
91% of respondents believe creative activities, such as crafts, the arts, drawing and writing, can support people in leading healthier and happier lives. The results suggest that there would be widespread support for a greater investment in a more diversified approach to prevention, as opposed to diagnosis and treatment. Currently, 70% of the NHS budget is spent on long-term health conditions with just 4% on prevention.
To further ease the burden on the NHS, which is facing a multi-billion-pound budget shortfall over the coming years, 87% of respondents believe that individuals should take a more proactive approach to manage their own health and wellbeing. To help self-management, 62% of respondents noted that they could benefit from using technologies, such as health watches or health apps, to look after their physical and mental wellbeing. However, 45% of respondents saw cost of these devices as a significant barrier to usage.
The survey supports earlier findings from The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPGAHW) Inquiry Report dated July 2017. The report found that art and creativity can play a vital role in helping to meet significant challenges facing health and social care and can save money in the health service and social care sectors.
Commenting on the findings, Wander Bruijel, Director of Marketing at Elmwood commented, “The results from the survey confirm what we have always known, which is that creativity and design have the power to positively impact human behaviour and emotion. The design and creative process address deep human needs and it is no surprise that being creative can help to improve health and mental wellbeing. Through the Elmwood LaunchPod programme, we will be focused on working with our entrepreneurs to demonstrate how they can implement use the power of design to address the challenges of consumer health and address some of the challenges facing the nation’s health.”
Elmwood LaunchPod, which launches this September, is an accelerator programme uniquely brings together start-up and scale-up businesses from across technology, science, and creative and design disciplines to create the next generation innovations that will improve people’s relationship with their health and the health service. This can include the application of AI or robotics, but can also include an innovative application of creative disciplines to improve health and wellbeing.
Over a period of 12 weeks, these businesses to accelerate their growth through a rigorous programme covering key aspects of business development, including market definition, value proposition development, the application of design-thinking, marketing, as well as softer aspects relevant to rapidly growing businesses, such as change management and culture. This will result in a refined market offer built on the principles of systems and design centred thinking, a sharpened business plan, and a business ready to take its next step A number of start-up businesses have already signed up for the programme and applications will close shortly.
