From exercise on prescription to museum visits and debt advice. Christienna Fryar hears about social prescribing projects which are trying to link up the arts with other services to improve people’s health and tackle loneliness. These include wild swimming in the waterways of Nottinghamshire, the “Arts for the Blues” project based in the North west of England, a pilot programme in Scotland called “Art at the Start”, and a community hub at the Grange in Blackpool. Helen Chatterjee, Professor of Human and Ecological Health at UCL is heading a programme which brings together a range of national partners including NHS England’s Personalised Care Group, the National Academy for Social Prescribing, and the National Centre for Creative Health. Dr Myrtle Emmanuel, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour at the University of Greenwich is starting a project aiming to have an impact on mental health by using Caribbean folk traditions working with communities in Greenwich and Lewisham, which have the fastest growing Caribbean communities in London.

Christienna Fryar is a historian of sport and the history of Britain and the Caribbean. She is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker

You can find more about the projects Helen is involved in https://culturehealthresearch.wordpress.com/health-disparities/ You can find out more about projects being funded by the AHRC including Myrtle’s in this article https://www.ukri.org/news/ahrc-projects-kickstart-future-of-health-and-social-care-dialogue/

Producer: Jayne Egerton

This New Thinking conversation is part of a series marking NHS75 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. If you don’t want to miss an episode sign up for the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast from BBC Sounds.