A proposal to bring art and health together, to support the therapeutic care of patients with the aim of remobilising people who may need this support to lift their heads up again, and to give our artists even more visibility. Culture is essential and can undeniably add value to human wellbeing.
MP Charles Gardier launched the introduction of “cultural certificates” in Spa through a motion adopted unanimously. A proposal he hopes will inspire other municipalities to follow suit. “It really is a partnership that also has a therapeutic aim, namely to remobilise patients but also to enable their reintegration into their social and professional lives. This cultural ‘prescription’ should be understood in the sense that it is an initiative taken by a health professional towards a patient, an additional possibility offered to help patients get back on their feet, but it has and will have no connection with a conventional prescription that could give rise to reimbursement by a health insurance fund,” he explains.
“For me, culture is essential and can undeniably add value to human wellbeing”
Health and culture are not opposed at all and can even complement each other. Several studies also show the growing value of getting some fresh air, opening one's critical mind, discovering, creating, and so on…
“University College London, for example, conducted a study of a sample of 6,000 people over 12 years. It showed that the mortality rate was significantly lower among those who regularly visited museums,” he continues.
This is linked to figures published by the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (Inami): long-term incapacity (more than a year) linked to mental disorders continued to rise in 2023, notably due to depression or burnout, with an increase of 9.37% compared to 2022.
The number of cases of depression and burnout leading to incapacity for work of more than a year rose by 44% between 2018 and 2023.
In addition, young people's mental health has been a public concern since the Covid crisis. More than 63% of 16-24 year-olds felt a negative change in their mental health during the pandemic.
“It is within this broader framework that a partnership between cultural venues and health specialists should be able to offer significant wellbeing to people with mental health problems, give additional visibility to artists' work, and also raise awareness of cultural venues in our area by offering places that would otherwise have found no takers, since they are offered voluntarily by cultural operators. This therefore does not put the financial health of cultural institutions and our artists at risk,” concludes Charles Gardier.