[Review] Developing roadmaps for advancing practice, research, and policy in the arts and health

AI Summary

The review proposes research, policy, and practice roadmaps for integrating arts engagement into health and wellbeing systems. It calls for regular opportunities for everyone to participate in the arts and for systems to monitor progress toward that goal.

Despite arts engagement being a ubiquitous human behaviour across human history, research and awareness on the health benefits of engagement are still emerging, accelerating over the past decade. Building on the evidence and research challenges outlined in the first paper of this Lancet collection, this Review puts forward a series of roadmaps for advancing research, policy, and practice to enable appropriate and effective integration of the arts into health and wellbeing systems globally. First and foremost, we advocate for the fundamental principle that all individuals, regardless of their characteristics and location, should have regular opportunities to engage in the arts, proposing policy and research steps to monitor and achieve this goal.