creative ageing and social prescribing

We’ve loved working with Dr Sofia Vougioukalou at Cardiff University on research bridging the gap between diverse service users, service providers and policy makers in Wales', in partnership with the Arts Council for Wales and other organisations across Wales who deliver exemplary creative interventions to older people exploring the potentials and challenges of social prescribing for the arts.

Social prescribing is a non-pharmacological approach to supporting people’s health and wellbeing through referrals to meaningful activity such as the arts.

In the UK it is a key policy area linked to the personalised healthcare agenda which aims to cut the booming cost of an ageing population. The applications of ‘arts on prescription’ are complex and often exclusive of the communities that need interventions the most. Particularly, when engaging older adults with experiences of social isolation and/or dementia, there are barriers such as digital literacy, access to devices, capacity to consent, cultural and aesthetic preferences. Creative practitioners and service users hold most of the information on impact - it’s a predominantly oral, experiential and private body of knowledge. Ethnographic and participatory approaches are therefore highly suited to document and translate this knowledge to policy makers. This will contribute to cost-effective solutions tailored to the specialised needs of our ageing population. 

As part of our work together we co-presented on JOIO, our project with people living with or alongside dementia at the International Socio Gerontechnology event at Bristol University

We value our work with academic partners like Imperial College London, Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan, Oxford University as well as clinicians from the NHS who have been instrumental in developing effective practice and embedding research led development of many of our project.