In a program that reflects Swiss ingenuity, the town of Neuchâtel has established this very kind of two-year pilot project, which allows doctors to prescribe free visits to museums as art therapy for patients of any age. The program aims to improve the health of patients by leveraging aspects of art and culture as potential therapeutic interventions.
Museums and the Health Benefits of a Prescription
Physicians writing “museum prescriptions” under the program now have local and regional authorities picking up the tab for them. It prescribes patients to go to any of Neuchâtel’s four museums as part of their treatment. It is inspired by a 2019 report from the World Health Organization that highlights the positive impact of the arts on mental health, trauma reduction and cognitive function.
Training for a Post-Pandemic World
Julie Courcier Delafontaine, a member of the Neuchâtel council, said the COVID-19 pandemic — and the lockdowns and culture space closures that came with it — showed that having access to culture was important for mental and emotional health. It runs on a modest 10,000 Swiss franc ($11,300) budget and has dispensed about 500 prescriptions to area physicians.
Expanding Therapeutic Options
If the pilot project proves successful, local officials plan to expand the program to other arts activities, including theatre and dance. Though the Swiss national healthcare system currently does not cover any “culture as a means of therapy” Not at this time, any positive outcomes this intervention produces could ultimately facilitate some policy-level change.
Responding to Diverse Patient Needs
Marianne de Reynier Nevsky, the program’s cultural mediation manager, said the initiative was meant to be beneficial for a wide range of patients, including those suffering from depression, mobility problems and chronic illnesses. The program aims to encourage patients to move, particularly walk and stand, in museums.
The Doctor-Side Versus the Patient-Side Perspectives
The doctor prescribing museum visits to the patients he wants fit to have surgery: Dr. Marc-Olivier Sauvain, head of surgery at the Neuchâtel Hospital Network, has already written out two prescriptions for visitors to swipe at their local museum to goose their fitness before surgery. He plans to expand on that program, particularly for patients who became isolated. Museum prescriptions in the cliched sense is the healthier alternative to conventional medical tools, Dr. Sauvain says. Museum visitors, like the poet and retired teacher Carla Fragniere Filliger, have also shown excitement about the program, saying it should be offered at museums worldwide.
Written in part by Mireille Golay, the Neuchâtel initiative is a new kind of health care, designed to blend cultural participation with traditional medical care. The proven benefits of art and culture are being harnessed as the town embraces a whole-person, all-encompassing, approach to patient wellness. The program, which promotes visits to museums as one way to encourage people to get more exercise, cuts to the heart of a major conundrum in health care: how to get patients to lead healthier lives.
The ability to expand the program in the future to cater to other types of creative expression, like theatre or dance, is part of a broader vision of bringing culture into the health care system. This recognizes the many ways the arts can aid in the healing and wellness process. This is quite a radical position, leaving us the hope that the national health system of Swiss hopes someday to see the importance of “culture as therapy” as well; that is that some kinds of innovative and multidisciplinary interventions are effective at dealing with the social determinants of health.
Its potential impact has been highlighted by the responses it has received from doctors and patients. Dr. Sauvain gives her insight as to why her approach could be effective, choosing to prescribe fun activities that can boost adherence and outcomes. The enthusiasm of museum-goers like Carla Fragniere Filliger, shows that the program resonates with people and there’s a desire for more humanistic approaches to health care.
The Neuchâtel initiative may serve as a prototype for other communities hoping to integrate arts and culture into their local health care providers. Being inspired by a relationship with, and understanding of, how museums work their wonders on patient well-being (is, quite literally, a win-win situation and adds to a growing body of evidence supporting the arts as a form of therapy. A successful program can then embolden other programs to do the same, increasing the health and wellness of people and communities.
