Social Prescribing
Introduction
This is intended to be an interactive document that changes over time. Although there are well-established and long-running arts-on-prescription and museums-on-prescription schemes around the country, we are still learning about how culture, creativity and social prescribing can work together. If you are aware of gaps in this document, please get in touch and start the discussion.
What is social prescribing?
The term is used largely in relation to primary care (general practice). It describes the practice of referring patients to social activities instead of or as complementary to more ‘conventional’ forms of medicine. You can find out about social prescribing via the Social Prescribing Network. The network also has regional representatives across the country – please contact them if you want to start a discussion about your own work. The free UCL Life Learning course developed by the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance includes a helpful introduction to social prescribing. You can find it the course here: https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/culture-health-and-wellbeing-online-training-course. The course is called Museums as Spaces for Wellbeing, but applies equally across the arts and heritage sectors, as well as to libraries and other public and cultural spaces.