Stressed? Sick? Swiss town lets doctors prescribe free museum visits as art therapy for patients

The Swiss town of Neuchâtel is offering its residents a novel medical option: Expose yourself to art and get a doctor’s note to do it for free. Under a new two-year pilot project, local and regional authorities are covering the costs of “museum prescriptions” issued by doctors who believe their patients could benefit from visits to any of the town’s four museums as part of their treatment. 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 “premature mortality,” among other upsides. Art can help relax the mind—as a sort of preventative medicine—and visits to museums require getting up and out of the house with physical activity like walking and standing for long periods. Neuchâtel council member Julie Courcier Delafontaine said the COVID crisis also played a role in the program's genesis. “With the closure of cultural sites (during coronavirus lockdowns), people realized just how much we need them to feel better.” She said so far, some 500 prescriptions have been distributed to doctors around town, and the program costs “very little.” Ten thousand Swiss francs (about $11,300) have been budgeted for it. If successful, local officials could expand the program to other artistic activities like theater or dance, Courcier Delafontaine said. The Swiss national health care system doesn’t cover “culture as a means of therapy,” but she hopes it might one day if the results are positive enough. Dr. Marc-Olivier Sauvain, head of surgery at the Neuchâtel Hospital Network, said he had already prescribed museum visits to two patients to help them get in better shape before a planned operation. “It’s wishful thinking to think that telling them to go walk or go for a stroll to improve their fitness level before surgery will work,” Sauvain said on a video call. “I think that these patients will fully benefit from museum prescriptions. We’ll give them a chance to get physical and intellectual exercise.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.