We know that participating in the arts, whether actively or passively, is good for us. Activities like painting, journaling, songwriting, baking, listening to music, gardening, and so on are all connected to better health outcomes in children and adults alike. When we participate in those activities in a community setting, the benefits increase.
You may have noticed a recent rise in the terms “arts prescribing” or “arts on prescription”. Essentially, these terms mean the same thing: that the arts can be used as a tool to help us stay healthy and maintain our well-being.
Arts prescribing is its own pillar under the umbrella movement called social prescribing. Defined by Social Prescribing USA as a way for primary care providers to connect their patients with trained workers in their community who can provide them with “individualized connections to local services, community-based organizations, and local community groups” to help address issues that medicine alone cannot solve. Prescribing arts-based community workshops and events is one way to help patients fight isolation, heal mental health inequities, and much more.
Arts in Medicine (AIM) at UF Health Shands has been an active part of the social and arts prescribing movements since AIM’s inception in 1990. When a doctor noticed that their patient was feeling down about their diagnosis or treatment plan, they sought a way to lift the patient’s spirits and provide a different kind of relief to their current health situation. Arts in Medicine plays a key role in providing that relief here at the hospital through creative arts engagements tailored to the patient.
AIM’s services don’t just stop at patients we serve. We offer patients’ loved ones and hospital staff alike the opportunity to engage in arts-based activities.
AIM also hosts free, regularly scheduled workshops in the greater Gainesville community to at-risk and overlooked populations, thus closing the loop of extending the health benefits of arts participation from the hospital through to discharge and beyond.
Our goal is to empower our hospital-based and community-based communities to embrace the transformative power of the arts for our health and well-being. Through arts prescribing, primary care providers and community workers alike can help us reach this goal.