Connecticut is launching a new initiative that uses arts and culture to improve mental health and combat loneliness.
Art Pharmacy, in partnership with Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, is developing a social prescribing ecosystem — a model that allows health care providers to prescribe arts participation as part of treatment.
Connecticut Public Radio’s Morning Edition recently spoke with three people involved with the project: Chris Appleton, CEO of Art Pharmacy, based in Atlanta, Georgia; Elsa Ward, director of Recovery Community Affairs at the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services; and Elizabeth Shapiro, director of Arts, Preservation, and Museums at the State Department of Economic and Community Development.
How social prescribing works
Appleton: Social prescribing is a practice that has been around for a long time. It began formally in the U.K. about 40 years ago. Through social prescribing, health care providers prescribe or refer patients to nonclinical, community-based supports.
Examples of social prescriptions could be a prescription for art, a prescription for nature, a prescription for community activation, or volunteerism. The work that we're doing here in Connecticut is really to address issues related to mental health, social isolation and loneliness.
Arts participation can improve mental health outcomes
Appleton: We have that evidence in spades, and it does feel good. It is a feel-good initiative, but it's not only feel-good. At Art Pharmacy, 86% of individuals — youth with serious emotional disturbances — improve in their mental health scores. Seventy-two percent of individuals improve their loneliness scores after just one dose of arts and culture.
There are centers for arts and medicine and arts and health across the globe that are studying this work and have made it really clear that arts engagement and participation can improve people's health outcomes.
Referrals come from many types of health care providers. We work with primary care physicians, pediatricians and geriatricians. We also work with school-based behavioral health providers. Referrals come from trusted community sources, so it may be a community health worker or social worker.
Arts and cultural activities in Connecticut
Shapiro: There's a full spectrum of arts and cultural activities. One thing that we know in Connecticut is that there are over 730 arts and cultural organizations in our tiny little state, and they run the gamut.
They offer participatory experiences like dance classes, theater classes, acting classes, and painting classes. They also offer more spectator-oriented experiences, like going to the symphony at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra or attending a film series at the Garde Arts Centre in New London. Some even offer things like circus arts and writing.
If you can think of a cultural organization, those are the spectrum of activities that would fit the bill.
The first two years of our partnership with Art Pharmacy are being paid for by the state of Connecticut and funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. It's a combination of state and federal sources that help fund this partnership.
Importance of human connection
Ward: Human connectedness is important for everyone. It's not only important for our mental health — anxiety, depression, and everything else that can go with that.
You know, when we are isolated, we can have increased medical issues. That is proven research. The pandemic really socially isolated many people. A lot of people who had support networks saw them decimated because so many of their friends passed.
Many of our young adults grew up on social media. They didn’t have that human connectedness, and we have seen time and time again that human connection improves mental health symptoms.
Who the program is for
Appleton: We think that art as medicine — social connection as medicine — is for everyone.
Of course, in order to integrate it into the U.S. health care system, we're focusing on populations where there are unique needs and challenges related to mental health. We see the greatest results with adolescents and young adults with anxiety and depression disorders.
We've just started working with individuals on prevention and recovery for substance use disorders. And, as we've been speaking about, we’re addressing social isolation and loneliness among older adults.
Ward: I am a person who had a substance use history long ago, and I live with a mental health condition. For me, that human connectedness is so important.
If I have to exercise by myself, I’m not going to do it. But if I get to join a group, I’m more likely to participate. I can have my psychiatrist write a prescription, and they send it to the care coordinator, who asks, "What do you like to do?" Then they can say, "How about this or this?" That sparks my interest. I give it a try, and I like it.
Learn more
Take a pottery class and call me in the morning. Program offers CT doctors ways to combat loneliness
