WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — From surgical suites and MRIs to guitars and paint brushes, United Health Centers is embracing not just traditional medicine, but also the arts.
Arts for Everybody is a national initiative working in 18 cities including Winston-Salem, and just like there are many kinds of medicine, there are many forms of art.
“We have music, we have dance, we have theater, we have skits. We have visual arts,” says Issis Kelly, the program manager for Arts for Everybody.
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The project focuses on using the arts to support good physical and mental health, showing people that they are not alone and reducing loneliness.
“By reducing the stress and loneliness, there’s a lot of diseases that are caused by those problems that it helps,” she says. “So, it can help you lower your blood pressure. It can help reduce dementia …. People that participate in art sleep longer, and they have a better quality of life.”