Healing Arts in Times of War

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9 March 2026, UK Parliament

The Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe and John Slinger MP, convened a high-level roundtable at the House of Commons, bringing together Members of Parliament, researchers, veterans, artists, and medical practitioners, on Healing Arts in Times of War.

Organizers

Partners

Co-Chairs

John Slinger MP

MP for Rugby

Christopher Bailey

Global Policy Lead, Jameel Arts & Health Lab

Stephen Stapleton

Founding Co-Director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab

Post-Event Briefing

UK Parliament Roundtable

Healing Arts in Times of War

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About the Roundtable

On 9 March 2026, the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and the WHO Regional Office for Europe convened the Healing Arts in Times of War Roundtable in Committee Room 6 of the House of Commons. Co-chaired by John Slinger MP and Christopher Bailey, Global Policy Lead at the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, the roundtable brought together defence and cultural policymakers, WHO officials, military personnel, NGOs, researchers, clinicians and artists to explore the role of the arts in supporting military health, veteran recovery and civilian resilience during and after conflict. With a central focus on case studies emerging from Ukraine, the conversation bridged grassroots initiatives and government policy, exploring how the arts can function as “critical human infrastructure” in times of war.

Who Took Part

Contributors included Lord Coaker, Minister of State for Defence; Sir Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland; Veronika Skliarova, Founder of Art Therapy Force; Iryna Hlubetska of Unbroken National Rehab; writer Ostap Ukrainets of Cultural Forces; consultant clinical psychologist Dr Angela Kennedy; Dr Henry Redwood of King’s College London; war artist Prof. David Cotterrell; George Richards, Director of Community Jameel; Dr Ameer Shaheed of the WHO Europe-led BACH Project; and Stephen Stapleton, Founding Co-Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab.

What Was Discussed

The scale of need: with an estimated 93% of Ukraine’s population having experienced trauma, participants examined why war-related trauma recovery demands a systems-level rethink beyond conventional clinical capacity.
The arts as an underused treatment: clinicians and researchers shared growing evidence that the arts offer an effective, scalable and low-cost route to trauma care for soldiers, civilians and frontline responders.
Learning from Ukraine: speakers presented innovation from the frontline, from Art Therapy Force’s growth since 2022 to early results at the UNBROKEN rehabilitation centre and the BACH Project’s mapping of 86 arts and health initiatives across the country.

Looking Ahead

The discussion pointed towards four shared priorities: deeper UK–Ukraine arts and health partnerships, a stronger evidence base for arts-based trauma care, capacity building for practitioners in Ukraine, and a multi-year Healing Arts Ukraine programme.

Read the Post-Event Policy Brief

Voices from the Roundtable

Rt Hon, Lord Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for Defense

"The work that you are doing here and the therapy you are providing to military personnel through the arts is an important way of looking at things...I wanted to attend this roundtable to show that the Defence ministerial team support what you are doing and to recognise it."

Iryna Holubetska, Unbroken Foundation

"The war in Ukraine is impacting our minds, our bodies, and our social fabric every day. Arts-based approaches are allowing people to process trauma in ways that conventional approaches often cannot.
Integrating the arts into health systems is not a luxury in wartime - it is an essential part of recovery and resilience."