During the lockdown period of COVID-10 pandemic, older people with limited opportunities for social exchange were especially affected by loneliness. European-level research shows that about 25% of the participants who engaged in cultural prescribing felt lonely only half of the time compared to the time prior to the activities.
This is where the “Culture on Prescription” approach comes in. Building on the concept of social prescribing, already well established in the UK and Ireland, “Culture on prescription in Europe” (COPE) project examines how newly developed cultural activities in adult education can address the loneliness and social isolation of older people.
Supported by the Erasmus+ funding programme of the European Union and led by Germany’s Institute for Applied Social Research, Social planning and Policy Advice (ISIS) in Frankfurt am Main, project partners from Portugal, Romania, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany will join forces in COPE.
The project will implement COPE pilot courses to evaluate how cultural activities and mental health promotion can best be combined, and provides older people with a personalized “Cultural Prescription” for taking part in new and custom-made activities. These pilot activities will be developed locally by the COPE project partners together with professional facilitators with expertise in arts and culture.
More information about COPE:
Christin Cieslak, christin.cieslak [at] eaea.org
