Scaling-up Health-Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research (SHAPER) (360G-Wellcome-219425_Z_19_Z)

This proposed programme at King’s College London (King’s) and King’s Health Partners (KHP), and in close collaboration with University College London (UCL), will translate arts in health research into sustainable, standardised and scalable health interventions that make both clinical and economic sense. Our primary aim is to upscale three known effective arts interventions (Melodies for Mums for Postnatal Depression, Dance for Parkinson’s, and Stroke Odysseys) and embed them in a clinical pathway across KHP, thereby strengthening the case for NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to recommend and fund such interventions in the long-term. We will seek to establish defined, clinical referral pathways, from either primary or secondary care settings. In addition, by examining larger cohorts than has hitherto been possible, we will gather further evidence of (i) the clinical effectiveness of our chosen interventions, and of the mechanisms underpinning it, (ii) the implementation effectiveness (i.e., acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness), and (iii) their economic effectiveness. The programme will further involve the largest implementation research centre outside North America, the King’s Centre for Implementation Science, as well as clinicians and researchers across King’s/KHP/UCL, and the three award-winning arts organisations, Breathe Arts Health Research, the English National Ballet and Rosetta Life.