Art on prescription: Practice and evidence

Holt, Nicola; Matthews, Julie; Elliot, Caroline

Abstract

Art on prescription is one pathway in social prescribing schemes that typically involves referrals to visual arts programmes (rather than to activities such as dance, music or creative writing) (Crone et al., 2018; van der Venter & Buller, 2015). Social prescribing is offered to individuals for a range of reasons in primary health care settings, including: psychosocial (e.g., social isolation); mental health (e.g., low to moderate levels of stress, anxiety or depression); and physical health (e.g., chronic pain or illness) (Keenaghan et al., 2012). Drawing on a biopsychosocial model, social prescribing recognizes the social cultural determinants of health, for instance, the role of social isolation in stress, anxiety and depression (Fixsen & Polley, 2020; World Health Organisation [WHO], 1946). Consequently, referrals are made to interventions that aim to improve psychosocial wellbeing, rather than solely focusing on biological treatments (and talking therapies), providing an additional resource (Bungay & Clift, 2010). Typically, a primary care health-care professional (e.g., a general practitioner [GP] or practice nurse), public health or social work care worker refers a patient to a social prescribing link worker, who discusses local community groups and interventions that might meet their interests and wellbeing needs, leading to a personalized ‘social prescription’ (Fixsen & Polley, 2020). This could consist of numerous activities that might benefit the person, with the hope of improving their wellbeing, health and/or health-related behaviours, such as taking part in cookery classes, sport, gardening groups, nature walks, joining choirs or attending museums (Chatterjee et al., 2018).

NHS England aim to extend the provision of social prescribing in their Long-Term Plan (NHS England, 2019), not only to improve patient wellbeing but also to reduce the burden on primary care. It has been estimated that one fifth of visits to GPs are due to social rather than medical reasons (Caper & Plunkett, 2015; Fixsen & Polley, 2020). Consequently, it is hoped that social prescribing will reduce visits to GP surgeries and even need for medication (Drinkwater et al., 2019). Further, social prescribing has the potential to alleviate future burden on the NHS, especially pressing since it is predicted that health care costs associated with stress, anxiety and depression will rise exponentially by 2026 (Fleischer & Grehan, 2016) and that depression will be the largest ‘global health burden’ by 2030 (Mathers & Loncar, 2006). Despite the anticipated economic benefits of social prescribing, it has been argued that the primary driver for its use should be patient benefit (Drinkwater et al., 2019), and, accordingly, this chapter will focus on the evidence supporting the use of art on prescription to improve wellbeing, along with potential explanatory mechanisms for effects and consideration of practices of art for health facilitators that may enable this. Befittingly, this chapter is a collaboration between researchers and psychologists (NH and CE) and an artist and arts for health facilitator (JM), and will draw on experience of delivering and evaluating arts on prescription programmes.

Citation

Holt, N., Matthews, J., & Elliot, C. (in press). Art on prescription: Practice and evidence. In P. Crawford, & P. Kadetz (Eds.), Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities. (1). Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1

• Acceptance Date: Mar 26, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 30, 2022
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature)
• Series Title: Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities
• Edition: 1
• Book Title: Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1
• Keywords: Art on prescription, art on referral, arts and health, anxiety, depression, mental health, creativity, social prescribing
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9269737
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1