Art Doctors and Social Prescribing
In October we were commissioned by the Beyond Measure? conference, led by The Cultural Institute, LAHWN and The Centre for Cultural Value, to undertake a creative prescription project, where we worked with a small group of healthcare professional to explore the impact of creativity on their mental health and wellbeing. We also thought together about how the experience might affect their work and professional attitudes.
Everything took place online, first an initial consultation and prescription and then follow up appointments to discuss how the participants were getting on and to make further suggestions.
We all found the project gave us rich insight into each others’ worlds and the many similarities and differences between them. We also thought a lot about how engaging in creative activity can sometimes put us into challenging and difficult situations, so hosting a safe and welcoming space for people to talk, share and be heard is just as important to the process as the activity itself. Finding our way through those challenging situations in this safe creative environment can help us to build resilience for bigger challenging situations we find ourselves confronted by in the rest of our lives.
You can watch a short film that tells the story of our journeys through the project.
This pilot has also made us think a lot about social prescribing and the value of collaborative projects between arts and healthcare. We’d love to talk to anyone interested in exploring a collaboration further, so please get in touch if that’s you.
Filed under: Art Doctors