Project title
Description of initiative
Arts on Prescription (AoP) in the Baltic Sea Region 2023-2025 is an Interreg Baltic Sea Region project co-funded by the European Union.
The project’s partners are jointly developing a generic AoP programme concept, based on existing evidence and best practice, and adapting it to local conditions in partnering countries – Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden. 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.
Additionally, the project partners are developing an online Arts on Prescription Practitioner’s Guide, which will aid and support public authorities, cultural and health institutions engage people with mental health challenges in social and non-therapy art activities to improve their mental wellbeing.
In the final phase of the project the AoP concept programme will be transferred to other cities and regions who will also have access to and support of the online practitioner’s guide and a rent-an-expert programme. Furthermore, the project partners will initiate a dialogue with national authorities and health insurance funds in order to improve the structural support and financing options for AoP in the long-term.
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Budget
Timeframe
Sources of funding
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
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 - with the aim to improve their mental well-being.
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” 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. Evaluation resuklts will be made public on the project's website.
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.
The online practitioner’s guide will be made public after the final evaluation in spring 2025 and can be accessed via: https://aop.ndphs.org/