Abstract
BackgroundThere is growing evidence that participating in arts activities are beneficial for mental health and wellbeing. Many patients attending primary care services have mental ill-health or social issues that healthcare practitioners currently do not have adequate ways of supporting. This study set out to explore the perspectives of primary healthcare practitioners on Arts on Prescription (AoP) as an additional referral pathway.MethodsA qualitative exploratory descriptive approach within an interpretive framework using semi-structured interviews was used to explore healthcare practitioners’ perspectives and experiences of AoP programmes in Sweden. Ten interviews were conducted with healthcare practitioners in primary care. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach.ResultsThe healthcare practitioners interviewed, recognised the need for more holistic approaches to care for those with mental health issues. They perceived that AoP is beneficial for patients in terms of motivation, creating routines, providing social interactions, and increasing self-esteem. In addition, AoP was felt to have the potential to impact upon current service provision and wider society. However, whilst the opportunity to refer patients to AoP in conjunction with conventional treatments was valued, participants reported that time pressures on practitioners and the continuing dominance of the medical model of care were barriers to wider acceptance amongst practitioners at the present time.ConclusionsAoP enabled primary healthcare practitioners to offer an additional pathway for patients that is an adjunct to the traditional care pathway. However, the programmes tend to be project-based and often time limited. For programmes to be sustainable and be included as part of a wider range of interventions available to healthcare practitioners’ suitable levels of funding would be required.
Highlights
There is growing evidence that participating in arts activities are beneficial for mental health and wellbeing
Mental health is of global concern with close to a billion people living with a mental health disorder, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the problem [1]
Patients attending with mental health problems are common in primary healthcare in Sweden [3] where mood and anxiety disorders, and stress and adjustment disorders account for a large proportion of the burden on services [4]
Summary
There is growing evidence that participating in arts activities are beneficial for mental health and wellbeing. Many patients attending primary care services have mental ill-health or social issues that healthcare practitioners currently do not have adequate ways of supporting. Patients attending with mental health problems are common in primary healthcare in Sweden [3] where mood and anxiety disorders, and stress and adjustment disorders account for a large proportion of the burden on services [4]. Within primary health care provision, such activities are frequently offered through social referral programmes and often referred to as AoP [12]. This is a form of social prescribing that enables GPs, nurses, and other primary care staff to refer patients to a range of local and non-clinical services [13]. Exploring barriers and enablers to social prescribing for patients with mental health problems, a study with GPs in the UK found that there is a need for a more systematic feedback structure, more formal training about social prescribing and developing the relevant inter-personal skills [15]
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