STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — When 11-year-old Sam plays the small, bright blue guitar she got for her birthday, she feels happy.
“Because the music is like, calm,” she said.
Sam sat facing her teacher, Adam Petty, in a darkened theater that has been converted into a practice room at the Wildhorse Cinema + Arts in Steamboat Springs.
On a recent evening, they ran through chords and then songs like “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
“It’s so hard,” Sam said as she tried to both sing and play “Old MacDonald,” sticking out her tongue in concentration. Her teacher agreed.
This is social prescribing: a non-medical approach to wellbeing that connects people to local activities, from nature walks to guitar lessons. In Sam’s case, her dad, Mike, says they saw a flyer in her pediatrician’s office for a program called Prescription for the Arts.
“So we went on and called them and told them about Sam,” said Mike. “And so they said, ‘Come on. Let’s start on this date.’ And we got matched up, and it has been great.”
Sam had been introduced to the guitar at school and really wanted to learn. Plus, she has some learning differences.
“And what this is doing is kind of tapping into the other side of her brain, the creative side, and giving her, you know, a focus and something to remember and learn,” Mike said.
11-year-old Sam poses with the guitar she got as a birthday present. Her parents signed her up for free guitar lessons through Prescription for the Arts, a Steamboat Spring initiative that aims to improve youth well-being through the arts. (Leigh Paterson, KUNC)In England, social prescribing has been a key component of health care for years. In Canada, funds put into social prescribing resulted in reduced health care costs, according to a recent analysis commissioned by the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing.
Here in the U.S, colleges, hospitals, and arts organizations are putting resources into social prescribing, hoping to improve well-being for all sorts of people from veterans to seniors.
In Steamboat Springs, the Prescription for the Arts initiative aims to address youth mental health by connecting kids with art.
“They write a prescription“
Dagny McKinley, the head of Undiscovered Earth, the Steamboat Springs nonprofit behind Prescription for the Arts, explained that the original idea started with local clinicians and pediatricians asking young people if they would be interested in using the arts as a way to cope with mental health concerns.
“For those who say yes, they then write a prescription, which can be a one-time prescription to go to the movies, to go listen to a concert, to walk through the botanic park, or it can be a longer term solution, so six classes for a drum lesson,” McKinley said.
The initiative got off to a slow start after launching in October. Young people struggling with anxiety or depression sometimes lacked the time and energy to show up for an activity. Since then, they have expanded into local schools and through word-of-mouth.
For now, classes are paid for through donations. McKinley says Undiscovered Earth hopes to work with insurance companies in the future. Currently, Medicaid covers some art and music therapies, sometimes known as Expressive Therapy.
For the art experiences supported by Prescription for the Arts, a mental health clinician or school counselor is usually involved.
“So that there is some sort of check in on the progress. Is this helping? Is this not helping?” McKinley explained.
‘It helps them in a persistent way’
A growing body of research suggests social prescribing increases well-being. At the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Dr. Marc Moss has been studying its impacts on health care providers as one of the principal investigators for the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab (CORAL), one of several research labs funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
“It’s amazing how positive the data is,” Moss said.
Over the past few years, hundreds of health care providers have taken the 12-week therapeutic arts course, focusing on visual arts, dance, music or creative writing.
“So in terms of improvements and symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, the symptoms improved by 25 to 35% compared to a control group,” Moss said.
Moss cautions that arts prescribing is not meant to be a standalone treatment for workplace stress and trauma; many of these health care providers receive other mental health supports.
In following up with CORAL cohorts later in the year, Moss and other researchers found many of them were still feeling better.
“So the program not only helps people, but it helps them in a persistent way,” said Moss.
Music therapist Carly Gilliland poses for a photo in downtown Steamboat Springs. She explains that the goal of social prescribing isn’t the art itself but the process of making it. (Leigh Paterson, KUNC)Carly Gilliland refers to the arts as a “beautiful container for expressing emotions,” an idea that is part of her philosophy as a music therapist in Steamboat Springs.
“That level of stress, those hormones, those chemicals that are just flowing through you, that keep you anxious, that prevent you from focusing in school or in social experiences,” said Gilliland. “It has a place to go.”
This past school year, Gilliland led music experiences at an alternative high school in Steamboat Springs, funded by Prescription for the Arts.
After proposing a rhythmic exercise that failed to engage the teens, Gilliland pivoted to songwriting by asking how they were feeling that day.
“One of the students was like ‘Tired,’ ” Gilliland said. “Like, yeah, me too, me too. Let’s think more about that. Why are you tired? How does it feel? How did your day start?”
Those words became the basis for a song. Gilliland guided her students through the songwriting process: from melody to lyrics to production.
“It starts something like ‘7:55, in the morning. I got a cat on my face,’” Gilliland sang with a laugh.
The goal of social prescribing, she explained, isn’t about the quality of the art but the experience of making it.
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