Health Humanities

Abstract

There is a growing need for a new kind of debate at the intersection of the humanities and healthcare, health and well-being. In the recent past the field of medical humanities has grown rapidly, but it is timely and appropriate to address the increasing and broadening demand from other professions to become involved, to accommodate new sectors of the healthcare workforce and the public, and to extend ‘appliedness’ in relation to how arts and humanities knowledge and practices can inform and transform healthcare, health and well-being. There are important cohorts of personnel in healthcare, a whole army of ancillary workers, as well as informal carers and patients themselves who have been largely left out of the medical humanities so far. Moreover, as different disciplines come to value the contribution made by the arts and humanities and new opportunities emerge in health for the development and inclusion of new approaches here, it is important that this expansion and debate is given voice and new fora are created for these new developments.