Professors specialising in dementia prevention, creative ageing, leaders in social prescribing, culture, health and wellbeing, people living the diagnostic experience and arts and health practitioners presented evidence at our social prescribing conferences. The A4D Best Practice Conference 2019 ‘Towards Social Prescribing (Arts & Heritage) for the Dementias’ at the Wellcome Collection opened the conversation to advance social prescribing to re-energising arts activity at the onset of dementia symptoms.
To address issues raised from both the health and culture sectors, in 2020 we set up a social prescribing programme in the London Borough of Southwark, training for arts teams, medical students and link workers, launched at London’s Tate Exchange and ran a series of 15 museum-hosted conferences for each NHS England region, for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A4D gathered together leaders in academia, social prescribing, culture, health and wellbeing in every NHS region. The idea is that if GPs refer patients to link workers to choose weekly arts programmes early in the diagnostic process, by sharing cultural interests, learning new skills, the shock of diagnosis will be less, as they co-create dance, drama performances, discuss and create art, despite dementia, they can preserve identity and enjoy life in the community for longer.
Our campaign to relieve the severity of fear and loneliness in the run up to diagnosis, reached its apogee with the A4D Best Practice Conference 2021 ‘A.R.T.S. for Brain Health: Social Prescribing as Peri-Diagnostic Practice for Dementia and report.
A4D Social Prescribing Conferences – sharing best practice, access talks from experts.
- D-IAGNOSIS! campaign – driving forward social prescribing to arts as peri-diagnostic practice
- A.R.T.S. for Brain Health: Social prescribing transforming the diagnostic narrative for dementia – From Despair to Desire, A4D report 2021.
- Podcasts 2020-21
- University College London: Creative Lives, episode 4: Older people, healthcare provision and access in ageing societies, interviewed by Dr Lorna Collins.
- London Arts in Health, Episode 3, Veronica Franklin Gould, Arts 4 Dementia and social prescribing referrals.
- The Centre for Cultural Value Reflecting Values
- World Health Organisation, Healing Arts London ‘Patterns in the Fog‘.
A.R.T.S. for Brain Health Webinars