»About Arts & Health Australia
Arts and Health Australia (AHA) is a networking and advocacy organisation and consulting agency, established to enhance and improve health and wellbeing within the community through engagement in creative activity. AHA is a groundbreaking organisation providing up-to-the-minute research and strategic solutions to its clients, and hosting conferences, forums and training programs.
AHA passionately promotes best-practice policy in arts and health, which culminates annually in November with The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing conference. International luminaries who attended the 2009 conference included Society for the Arts in Healthcare president emeritus, Naj Wikoff, influential USA Government representative Paula Terry, pioneering researchers Susan Perlstein and Cheryl Dileo, and British community arts and health specialists Mike White and Clive Parkinson.
Founding AHA director, Margret Meagher, has worked in arts management, business development, events and marketing communications for over 35 years. The last decade she has dedicated to the growing specialist area: arts and health, with a particular interest in the impact of culture on mental health and healthy ageing. She has written extensively on the subject, and from 2004-6 edited arts+medicine journal, circulated nationally to 50,000 doctors.
Margret regularly presents on arts and health. In North America, she has presented at the Society for Arts in Healthcare international conferences in Edmonton (2005), Chicago (2006), Nashville (2007), Philadelphia (2008) and Buffalo (2009)and Minnesota (2010). Speaking engagements in Australia include the National Rural Health Alliance Conferences (2007 and 2009) and the ArtsHealth Center for Research and Practice conferences at the University of Newcastle (2008, 2009).
She has advised medical colleges on how doctors can utilise the arts to enhance communication skills and achieve lifestyle balance, and sits on the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Research Foundation board. She is also a member of Churchill Fellowship Trust’s Arts NSW judging panel.
Arts and Health Australia:
- Advocates arts and health practice in primary care and community health
- Demonstrates the efficacy of the arts in health promotion
- Showcases the value of the humanities in medical education and clinician wellbeing
- Networks with people working in healthcare, arts, education and the community
- Connects with international counterparts on programming and research
- Facilitates policy change at federal, state and local government level to encourage and stimulate the development of ‘arts in healthcare’ in Australia
- Supports scientific research and evaluation of arts and health programs in Australia and overseas