Let’s introduce ourselves…
Gloucestershire Creative Health Consortium (GCHC) is made up of Gloucestershire’s key leading Arts & Health delivery and sector support organisations. Our work underpins healthier individuals and communities, easing pressure on health and care services, whilst our expertise contributes to wider national and international research, development and training of Creative Health.
What we do
We are a lively partnership of arts, culture and creative organisations working together to bring the joy of creativity into people’s everyday lives.
At our heart, the consortium partners use art, music, performance and other creative activities to support people’s health and wellbeing across the county. We encourage people to experience the benefits of creativity and manage their health in a different way.
By working collectively – Artlift, The Music Works, Art Shape, Mindsong, Play Gloucestershire and Cinderford Artspace – the Consortium, brings together a rich mix of experience and expertise. Commissioned in partnership with NHS Gloucestershire, we form part of a wider move towards more preventative, grass roots, community-based support that recognises creativity as a crucial ingredient for good health.
Our countywide partnerships demonstrate how Creative Health plays a vital role in prevention, early intervention and long-term wellbeing. By working alongside NHS and other cross-sector community partners, our work helps people to feel better, live well and stay connected.
Whoever you are, and whatever your age, we can open the door to imaginative, creative and fun ways to support both your physical and mental wellbeing.
Our standards are high, our arts practitioners are skilled, experienced and trusted, and we take the quality of our work seriously. You might find yourself painting, singing, dancing… or even hanging upside down in a circus sling. Never say never!
How Creative Health Developed in Gloucestershire
Reports and Papers
Many of the groups or sessions we deliver are funded by the NHS
How to access what we offer:
GP Referral
Social Prescribers can send you our way
Self-referral
Get in touch and refer yourself (open for most sessions a few are GP referral only)
Partners:
Gloucestershire Creative Health Consortium
Art Shape
We provide a county-wide range of creative programmes and courses with a specific focus on access for those with disabling barriers
Age group: Children, young people and adults
Specialisms within the consortium: We work with children and young people living with long term health conditions to aid self-management and boost wellbeing.
Art Shape, The Music works and Cinderford Artspace are working together to provide Arts on Prescription programmes for young people of 8-18 years who live with long term health conditions. (persistent pain / epilepsy / PPS /diabetes type 1 / respiratory conditions)
Artlift
A specialist Creative Health charity striving to give a creative uplift to those who need us during and after their time with Artlift. We work to co-produce pioneering best practice; trusted for our longevity of experience, the integrity of our evidence base, the efficacy of our multi-artform approaches and stories of positive change.
Age group: 18+
Specialisms within the consortium: Mental Health, Chronic Pain, Cancer
The Music Works
Our Mission is to transform young lives through music.
We’re specialists in working with young people challenging circumstances to help them reach their full potential in music, in learning and in life.
Age group: Children & young people
Specialisms within the consortium: Diabetes, Pain
Cinderford Artspace
Offers inclusive and accessible creative opportunities across a wide range of visual and digital arts, circus and performance, for people of all ages and abilities.
Age group: Adults, children and young people
Specialisms within the consortium: We work with children and young people living with long term health conditions and providing support for children and young people with low level mental health needs, aiming to reduce stress and anxiety and boost low mood and well-being. All art forms.
play gloucestershire
Our Play Rangers provide active and creative play in urban and rural communities in the Cheltenham, Cotswold, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Stroud and Tewkesbury districts. Activities are both school and community based, providing adventure, friendship and fun for hundreds of young people each year.
Age group: School aged children and families
Specialisms within the consortium: We particularly support children from disadvantaged and rurally isolated communities and those living in challenging circumstances.
Mindsong
Mindsong create and provide services across Gloucestershire that are tailored for people living with dementia and their family and friends, helping to support wellbeing, decrease isolation, develop new relationships, and bring joy through music. We also aim to increase awareness and understanding of dementia through training and education.
The openness of our approach has also enabled us to use the skills and experience gained within our dementia work to support people with other health conditions. Whoever we work with, meaningful music-making and singing lies at the heart of what we do.
Age group: 18+
Specialisms within the Consortium: We provide clinical music therapy sessions, community singing groups and volunteer-led singing with residents in care homes. We also provide supportive singing groups to improve breathing and quality of life for people with respiratory conditions, Long Covid and aphasia.
Our Email
Our Number
01452 863855
Our Location
Art Shape, Brockworth Court Farm, Court Road, Brockworth, Gloucestershire, GL3 4QU
