Arts on Prescription

The NDPC is an associated partner in Arts on Prescription project co-funded by Interreg BSR programme. The project helps public authorities, cultural and health institutions engage people with mental health challenges in social and non-therapy art activities to improve their mental wellbeing.

Arts on prescription is a concept to improve the mental well-being of citizens. The idea is that people with a diagnosed mental condition such as depression, stress or anxiety, or people at risk of developing such a condition (e.g. due to loneliness) get a prescription not for medicine or therapy, but for taking part in regular arts activities in group settings. This has been proven to have positive health effects. The challenge that public authorities face when planning and implementing such a programme lies in the underdeveloped cooperation between the culture and health sector, the lack of knowledge on how to set up, organise and evaluate a programme and the lack of long-term financing. The partners of the project “Arts on Prescription in the Baltic Sea Region” will jointly develop a model programme that is based on state-of-the-art evidence and experience, but adaptable to different local conditions and public health systems. The programme will be piloted by local and regional public authorities in cooperation with cultural institutions and evaluated for its health effects, organisational set-up and economic benefits. The arts on prescription model is then transferred to other cities and regions who are supported with an online practitioner’s guide and a rent-an-expert programme. Moreover, the project will initiate a dialogue with national authorities and health insurance funds in order to improve the structural support and financing options for arts on prescription.

Read more here.

Project Duration

January 2023 – December 2025