Creativity, Culture, and Community-Based Mental Health Nursing

Dear Colleagues,

Background

“Poor mental health is often associated with equally poor overall health and exacerbated by health inequalities and socio-economic deprivation” [1]. The Marmot Report [2] argues that health inequalities are unnecessary and can be reduced through policies that respond to individual’s needs, working in the contexts within which people live and work, i.e., within their local communities and cultures [3]. Mental health nurses remain central to leading system improvements for sustainable mental health support and inclusive services that work with communities to mitigate and address health inequalities  and to address issues arising from environmental challenges [4].

Challenges associated with embedding place-based innovations, which are usually built upon participatory relationships and effective collaborations, form an under investigated area from which to address sustainable wellbeing initiatives, particularly capturing how and what matters to people when investigating approaches that are most effective in contributing to population and planetary health, community resilience, and sustainable wellbeing [5].

Transformation requires innovations in health and social care, which has repeatedly been identified as challenging [6,7]. Innovation tends to commence with creativity to produce something novel and useful [8]. Creativity has been defined simply as the ability to discover innovative and original ideas [9], where “outcomes of creativity include from inner transformation to problem solving and the creation of insight and knowledge to innovative and aesthetic artefacts” [9]. Tang et al., 2021 [10], identify creativity as a powerful source regarding the promotion of psychological wellbeing, characterised through expression, through art, music, writing, and problem solving, and through an enhanced sense of social cohesion, identify, and functioning [11,12].

Monitoring and measuring creativity-, culture-, and community-based mental health nursing practices has proven difficult, as traditional research approaches rely on comparisons, control groups, and scalability, whereas a more inclusive approach, found in a wide variety of creative forms, requires new forms of measurement and innovative approaches to scaling with sensitivity [13].

Importance

Creativity has potential to transform mental health practice, research, and inclusive, sensitive population outcomes, yet further research is needed to capture  the cultural variations and long-term impact of engaging creatively with communities. Rural, coastal, and urban communities are complex ecosystems that both contain and support often overlooked, under-served, seldom-heard people, who are likely to be most affected by health and care system inequalities and the raising concerns relating to climate change (draught, flooding, high winds, wildfires, etc.). According to the Future of Nursing Report [14], the next few years will be a testing time for nurses in terms of living and working at the intersection of education, health, and community wellbeing [14]. The report concludes that “nurses will assume even greater responsibility for helping to build an accessible, equitable, high-quality public health and health care system that works for everyone” [14].

Goal of Special Issue

This Special Issue invites researchers, practitioners, artists, communities, and those working in pursuit of enhanced mental wellbeing through creativity and innovative solutions to communities with diverse population needs and associated impacts of  planetary health challenges. Creative innovations driven and embedded within communities will be prioritised, where coproduction and collaboration are at the centre of social exchange, to enhance sustainable wellbeing.

References
1. Karkou V, Omylinska-Thurston J, Thurston S, Clark R, Perris E, Kaehne A; et al. Developing a strategy to scale up place- based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing: A realist evaluation of ‘Arts for the Blues’. PLoS ONE 2024, 19(1): e0296178. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296178.
2. Marmot, M., Health equity in England: The Marmot review 10 years on. BMJ 2020, 368.
3. Marmot, M., & Allen, J. A programme for greater health equity for the next UK Government. The Lancet,2024, 403(10445), 2675–2677.
4. Fairbanks, T., Lafido, M., Walsh, M. Healing the healers: Supporting wellness through mental health champions. Nursing Management (Springhouse) 2024, 55, pp: 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmg.0000000000000114.
5. Hardy, S., Webster, J., Jackson, C., Wilmouth, S. The Centenary of Caring Project: A Co-Created Public Art Exhibition Expressing How Covid-19 Impacted on Health and Social Care Settings in East Anglia. Journal of Arts and Humanities,2023, 12(4), 51–62.
6. Bullinger, A. C., Neyer, A. K., Rass, M., Moeslein, K. M. Community‐based innovation contests: Where competition meets cooperation. Creativity and innovation management 2010, 19(3), 290–303.
7. Mistry, P, Lindsay, T., and Patterson M (2024) Siloed, unsupported and hindered – the reality of Innovation in the NHS and social care. Kings Fund Blog 25 April 2024. Available online: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/blogs/siloed-unsupported-hindered-innovation-nhs-social-care (accessed on 29 April 2025).
8. Sternberg, R. J., Pretz, J. E., Kaufman, J. C.. In The International Handbook on Innovation, 1st ed., Publisher: Elsevier Science, Oxford, UK, 2003, 158–169.
9. Kumar, Vinay; Pavitra, KS; Bhattacharya, Rahul. Creative pursuits for mental health and well-being. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 2024, 66 (Suppl 2), pp: S283–S303. https://doi.org/10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_781_23.
10. Tang, M., Hofreiter, S., Reiter-Palmon, R., Bai, V. Murugavel, X. Creativity as a means to well-being in times of COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a cross-cultural study. Frontiers in Psychology 2021, 9,12:601389. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.601389.
11. Schubert, E. Creativity is optimal novelty and maximal positive affect: A new definition based on the spreading activation model. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2021, 15:612379. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.612379.
12. Jean-Berluche, D. Creative expression and mental health. Journal of Creativity 2024, 34, 100083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yjoc.2024.100083
13. Noack, A., Federwisch, T. Social innovation in rural regions: Older adults and creative community development. Rural Sociology 2020, 85, 1021–1044.
14. Wakefield, M.K.; Williams, D.R.; Le Menestrel, S.; Lalitha, J. The Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity; The National Academic Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2021.

Prof. Dr. Sally Hardy
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nursing Reports is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• mental health
• community
• sustainable wellbeing
• creativity
• innovation
• culture
• health inequalities
• coproduction
• collaboration
• social exchange