The world\u2019s woes got you down? Feeling burnout at work? Need a little something extra to fight illness or prep for surgery? The Swiss town of Neuchatel is offering its residents a novel medical option: Expose yourself to art and get a doctor\u2019s note to do it for free. Under a new two-year pilot project, local and regional authorities are covering the costs of \u201cmuseum prescriptions\u201d issued by doctors who believe their patients could benefit from visits to any of the town\u2019s four museums as part of their treatment.<\/p>\n
The project is based on a 2019 World Health Organization report that found the arts can boost mental health, reduce the impact of trauma and lower the risk of cognitive decline, frailty and \u201cpremature mortality,\u201d among other upsides. Art can help relax the mind \u2014 as a sort of preventative medicine \u2014 and visits to museums require getting up and out of the house with physical activity such as walking and standing for long periods.<\/p>\n
Neuchatel council member Julie Courcier Delafontaine said the COVID-19 crisis also played a role in the program\u2019s genesis. \u201cWith the closure of cultural sites [during coronavirus lockdowns], people realized just how much we need them to feel better.\u201d She said so far some 500 prescriptions have been distributed to doctors around town and the program costs \u201cvery little.\u201d Ten thousand Swiss francs (about $11,300) have been budgeted for it.<\/p>\n
If successful, local officials could expand the program to other artistic activities such as theater or dance, Courcier Delafontaine said. The Swiss national healthcare system doesn\u2019t cover \u201cculture as a means of therapy,\u201d but she hopes it might one day, if the results are positive enough.<\/p>\n
Marianne de Reynier Nevsky, the cultural mediation manager in the town of 46,000 who helped devise the program, said it built on a similar idea rolled out at the Fine Arts Museum in Montreal, Canada, in 2019. She said many types of patients could benefit. \u201cIt could be a person with depression, a person who has trouble walking, a person with a chronic illness,\u201d she said near a display of a feather headdress from Papua New Guinea at the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchatel, a converted former villa that overlooks Lake Neuchatel.<\/p>\n
Part of the idea is to get recalcitrant patients out of the house and walking more. Dr. Marc-Olivier Sauvain, head of surgery at the Neuchatel Hospital Network, said he had already prescribed museum visits to two patients to help them get in better shape before a planned operation. He said a wider rollout is planned once a control group is set up. For his practice, the focus will be on patients who admit that they\u2019ve lost the habit of going out. He wants them to get moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wishful thinking to think that telling them to go walk or go for a stroll to improve their fitness level before surgery\u201d will work, Sauvain said on a video call Saturday, wearing blue scrubs. \u201cI think that these patients will fully benefit from museum prescriptions. We\u2019ll give them a chance to get physical and intellectual exercise.\u201d \u201cAnd as a doctor, it\u2019s really nice to prescribe museum visits rather than medicines or tests that patients don\u2019t enjoy,\u201d he added. \u201cTo tell them \u2019It\u2019s a medical order that instructs you to go visit one of our nice city museums.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Some museum-goers see the upsides too. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea,\u201d said Carla Fragniere Filliger, a poet and retired teacher, during a visit to the ethnography museum. \u201cThere should be prescriptions for all the museums in the world!\u201d<\/p>\n
The town of Neuchatel’s innovative approach to healthcare is a step in the right direction, recognizing the importance of art and culture in maintaining mental and physical well-being. By prescribing museum visits, doctors are providing patients with a unique opportunity to engage in preventative medicine, reducing the risk of various health issues. As the program continues to grow and expand, it may serve as a model for other cities to follow, promoting a more holistic approach to healthcare.<\/p>\n
The museum prescription program in Neuchatel is a two-year pilot project that allows doctors to prescribe museum visits to patients as part of their treatment.<\/p>\n
The program is designed to benefit patients with various health conditions, including depression, chronic illnesses, and those who have trouble walking.<\/p>\n
The program costs 10,000 Swiss francs (about $11,300) and is covered by local and regional authorities.<\/p>\n
Yes, if the program is successful, local officials may expand it to other artistic activities such as theater or dance.<\/p>\n
No, the program is not currently part of the Swiss national healthcare system, but officials hope it may be included in the future if the results are positive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stressed? Sick? Swiss town lets doctors prescribe museum visits Introduction to the Program The world\u2019s woes got you down? Feeling burnout at work? Need a little something extra to fight illness or prep for surgery? The Swiss town of Neuchatel is offering its residents a novel medical option: Expose yourself to art and get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9a43e52\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4032x2117+0+382\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa9%2Fc0%2Fe2c6ad30050223699c8ac821ddb4%2F0562608537744b23b76fdf6d6ce35c87","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10806,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions\/10806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}