Engagement with the arts can reduce anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Such social prescribing has been used in conjunction with traditional health and behavioral health care services in Europe and has gained traction elsewhere over the past decade. In the United States, challenges such as shortages in behavioral health providers, insufficient insurance coverage, and long-standing stigma have hampered access to comprehensive care. Social prescribing is now gaining popularity as a component of integrated care that can leverage community resources, address barriers, and improve access to care.

Art Pharmacy works with U.S. health care providers to prescribe evidence-informed arts interventions to assist patients at risk of or experiencing mental health or social isolation concerns as a supplement to other interventional therapies. The smart-matching technology enables tailored recommendations for arts and culture engagements based on patient characteristics, health goals and conditions, and artistic preferences.

The Georgia Health Policy Center is consulting with Art Pharmacy on their current Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health to validate Art Pharmacy’s smart-matching technology. In this phase of the study, GHPC subject matter experts are providing feedback regarding the testing of the algorithm to enable precise personalization of social prescriptions and matching of patients to optimal arts and culture engagements. Ultimately, Art Pharmacy seeks to use this study to further the development of a groundbreaking new type of “precision medicine” for mental health and social connection that centers patient choice.

Behavioral Health

 

Research & Evaluation