Baring Foundation and Arts Council of Wales announce a new programme for arts and mental health in the NHS

On World Mental Health Day 2021, we are pleased to be announcing a joint funding programme with the Arts Council of Wales to support arts and mental health in the NHS.

The new fund – Celf a’r meddwl | Arts and minds – will support the seven NHS health boards of Wales to develop their work with artists and arts organisations to provide creative opportunities for people with mental health problems.

The total value of this first round of the programme is £200,000 with the Baring Foundation and Arts Council of Wales contributing £100,000 each.

Projects supported in the first round will support a diverse range of groups, with for example Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (UHB) planning a project for mothers with postnatal depression or psychosis; Powys UHB, a programme to creative activities for people experiencing grief and bereavement as a result of suicide; and Hwyel Dda UHB, an arts in mental health programme for children and young people living with eating disorders, self-harming behaviour and suicidal feelings.

Read the full press release.

You can read more about the work of Cardiff & Vale UHB and Swansea UHB to support arts and mental health, as well as NHS mental health Trusts across the UK, in the Baring Foundation’s recent report, Creatively Minded and the NHS.

Feature image: art on the walls in Swansea Bay UHB.