Culture on Prescription in Europe: Health promotion through cultural learning experiences

In 2019, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre found that more than 75 million European adults get together with family or friends at most once a month, and around 30 million European ad...

The main objective of the COPE project was to show that combining culture and health promotion can create new ways of adult education and reduce loneliness and social exclusion among vulnerable groups, such as older people living alone or people with mental health problems. The Culture on Prescription project aimed to contribute to the health and well-being of these people by encouraging their active participation in cultural activities, strengthening their social interaction and helping them to feel more resilient to the challenges of their daily lives. The project aimed to disseminate knowledge about a promising, tested and proven approach to tackling mental health problems, and to provide models that could be easily adapted in parts of Europe where practical experience of social prescribing programmes is still limited. It therefore aimed to provide practical support to facilitators in delivering low-threshold education to people experiencing or at risk of loneliness or social exclusion, and to guide policy-makers in adopting the Social and Cultural Prescribing approach.