Art-on-prescription
Art is medicine.
Within ‘Arts-on-Prescription’ models, doctors prescribe community arts classes to those suffering from a range of mental illnesses and cognitive issues – and a growing body of scientific research attests to their efficacy.
Arts-on-Prescription models are not only effective at treating mental health issues, they have also been shown to promote physical health and wellbeing – and provide a cost-effective supplement to traditional prescriptions.
Community art classes have been found to precipitate a 73% fall in depression
Arts-on-Prescription projects can result in a government saving of £216 per capita.
Arts-on-Prescription projects have led to a 27% reduction in hospital admissions
The Neuroscience of A-o-P
Producing art can change neural pathways in the brain, which can help to change how we think and feel. (1)
Unlike activities that utilize specific local parts of the brain, making art stimulates areas all over your brain. The bilateral stimulation produced is an effective tool within trauma therapy, allowing the mind to make connections between thinking and feeling and promoting mind-body connectedness.
The fact that art uses such a wide area of the brain also makes it (unlike speech or movement) extremely resistant to brain damage, and means it is a skill that lasts long into old age. (2)
A-o-P for aging populations
Although “social prescribing programmes are becoming mainstays [...] across the UK” (1) and have been recommended by the WHO (2), they have – for the most part – yet to reach Asia (3).
But Hong Kong would benefit hugely from Art on Prescription models — which are particularly useful within aging populations where “primary care patients are increasingly presenting to their general practitioners (GPs) with complex needs, spanning physical, mental, and social health and well-being concerns.” (4)