Arts on Prescription: What Link Workers and GPs Need to Know

Creative health is a key pillar of social prescribing, with growing evidence that it improves health outcomes. Through social prescribing initiatives, creative health can help support people within their communities. For general practitioners (GPs) and link workers, understanding the value of creative health is key to supporting patients holistically, particularly those experiencing long-term conditions. Community-based interventions such as gardening demonstrate benefits such as physical activity, healthier diets, and reduced stress. 

The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) Resource - The role of Creative Health in Social Prescribing

On our website here, you can find examples of arts-based programmes that show how creative health supports social prescribing in practice. Research shows that these programmes can lead to significant improvements in anxiety, depression, and wellbeing, even for patients managing multiple long-term conditions (Sumner, R.C. et al., 2021). Community arts interventions such as gardening projects have been shown to reduce stress and encourage healthier lifestyles (Litt et al., 2023). Large-scale social prescribing initiatives, including the Ways to Wellness service in Newcastle, reported improved wellbeing in 86% of participants, alongside a 27% reduction in secondary care costs. 

NCCH’s Creative Health Toolkit

From NCCH’s Creative Health Toolkit, the Cultural Prescriptions programme in Derbyshire illustrates how creative health can support both social prescribing link workers and patients. During the pandemic lockdowns, link workers across Derbyshire and beyond were tasked with contacting GPs’ most shielded and vulnerable patients, often supporting very frightened and anxious people. To help ease this pressure, Arts Derbyshire launched Cultural Prescriptions — a creative support programme that provided space for reflection, connection, and peer-to-peer wellbeing among link workers.

The project used the ‘artist ways of looking’ and the process of making to create space for important conversations to emerge and for link workers to give each other peer-to-peer support. 

NCCH and the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing's Creative Health Review

The NCCH and the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing's Creative Health Review highlights social prescribing as a vital mechanism for connecting people to creative health initiatives, community, and improved wellbeing. It demonstrates how creative health can deliver meaningful outcomes, from reducing GP consultations and healthcare costs to strengthening local networks of care. The Review calls for a cross-government Creative Health Strategy to embed creative practice across systems, from the NHS and local authorities to schools and the voluntary sector, ensuring access for all. For link workers and GPs, this helps to provide a framework for recognising creative health and Arts on Prescription as integral to a modern and preventative healthcare system.

The Review highlights that longstanding Arts on Prescription programmes deliver strong social and economic returns. Evidence from Artlift shows a 37% reduction in GP consultations and a 27% decrease in NHS spending, demonstrating clear system-wide benefits. Similarly, an evidence summary by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found that arts-based social prescribing programmes generate a social return on investment of £1.09 to £2.90 for every £1 spent. 

One example highlighted in the Creative Health Review is Prescribe Heritage Highland, part of the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities research programme. Delivered by the University of the Highlands and Islands in partnership with High Life Highland and Museums and Heritage Highland, the project explored how heritage and cultural assets can support wellbeing in rural areas. Weekly sessions in local museums and archive centres created new referral pathways and partnerships between the NHS and the heritage sector, while increasing mental health awareness among staff and volunteers. By co-producing heritage-based social prescribing, the programme extended the reach of culture to new audiences and demonstrated how creative, place-based approaches can help address health disparities. 

Social Prescribing for Creativity, Health and Connection

On 6 March 2025, the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) hosted a webinar exploring Social Prescribing for Creativity, Health and Connection. Chaired by Esther Watts, South East Creative Health Associate, the event focused on how creative health activities can be embedded into social prescribing pathways to support patients’ health, wellbeing, and sense of belonging. Speakers shared inspiring models of practice — from the Hywel Dda University Health Board’s work in Wales, to creative initiatives such as Well-City Salisbury and heritage-led engagement through Wessex Archaeology. The panel demonstrated how commissioners, GPs, and local systems can fund and sustain creative health opportunities that address inequalities, reduce isolation, and improve quality of life.

Shining a Light on Social Prescribing

Shining a Light on Social Prescribing was an event in Lincolnshire highlighting how creative health services can enhance care across the Midlands. From Designs in Mind, where people use arts and crafts to manage mental health, to SoundLINCS’ trauma-informed music programmes, Linden Dance’s work with people living with Functional Neurological Disorder, and Green Synergy’s therapeutic gardening, the event showcased the breadth of creative health approaches, sustainable commissioning, and accessible referral pathways. As NCCH’s Jayne Howard noted, “Creative health is not a panacea, but it can give people meaning, purpose and agency” -  elements that are vital for wellbeing and central to effective Arts on Prescription initiatives. 

Arts on Prescription Research

A recent study (Jensen et al., 2024, Frontiers in Public Health) reviewed 25 Arts on Prescription programmes across the UK, US, Denmark, Sweden and Australia. These initiatives, often GP-referred, offered creative activities in community and healthcare settings. The findings showed clear benefits — improved mental health, stronger social connections, and new skills or opportunities for participants. By understanding what makes these programmes work best, healthcare providers and communities can use them more effectively to improve wellbeing and reduce isolation.

Mayor of London’s report on cultural social prescribing

The London Borough of Culture report on cultural social prescribing highlights that success relies on strong links between health services, cultural organisations, and community champions. For healthcare professionals, recognising how arts and culture support prevention and wellbeing helps embed Arts on Prescription as part of everyday care. The report recommends mapping cultural prescribing activity to improve collaboration, offering training across sectors, and integrating creative programmes into community hubs to raise awareness and share best practice.

Building on this, it is important to recognise that successful implementation depends as much on the structures around social prescribing as on the activities themselves.

Link workers help to connect patients to creative opportunities and tailor referrals to individual needs. For GPs, understanding the breadth of available community and cultural assets helps embed creative health as part of a holistic care approach. When supported with sustainable funding, cross-sector partnerships, and clear referral pathways, Arts on Prescription initiatives have the potential not only to enhance individual wellbeing but also to contribute to healthier and more resilient communities.