Culture, Matthias Roos and Katharina Popp agree, is a very effective remedy for loneliness. This is why they want to prescribe cultural activities, such as a theater workshop or a painting course, to be prescribed from March next year for people who feel alone. The application process for such a cultural recipe began on Friday 2 December.
“COPE – Culture On Prescription in Europe” is the name of the project that Roos, a psychologist at the health department, has devised together with the Isis Institute for Social Infrastructure. Roos has been in office since 2009. As head of the department “Health in old age / prevention”, in which numerous events for different age groups are developed and organised, Roos is convinced that culture and health go hand in hand. “Culture connects people, it creates social interaction and, if you are doing art together in a group, also exchanges between like-minded people,” he explains.
“This is exactly what COPE aims for: to bring together people who mostly live alone, have little social contact, in short – are alone,” says Dr. Peter Tinnemann, head of the health department. Current data show how many people are affected by loneliness: more than 75 million Europeans meet family or friends at most once a month, around 30 million feel lonely on a regular basis. And the feeling of loneliness has only increased during the pandemic. Tinnemann emphasizes: “Now is exactly the right time to start a project like ‘culture on recipe’. With it we can directly reach those affected and help promote their mental health.”
This should be successful with specially tailored creative offers. “In March we will start with a painting course with art teacher and social worker Andreas Hett and a theater workshop in cooperation with T-Raum in Offenbach. Up to 15 participants can participate in these courses,” says Katharina Popp, who oversees the project alongside Roos at the health department. The courses are aimed at people of all ages, but are particularly aimed at attracting older people. “Because they often live in social isolation and often have less access to digital offers than young people,” says Popp.
To obtain a culture prescription, you can email [email protected] or call the health department on 069/212-33129 until Wednesday 15 February 2023. The application requires you to fill out a specific questionnaire, which can be used to determine the degree of loneliness of the data subjects. Above all, those who feel lonely or are otherwise mentally stressed should benefit from the offer.
“In a subsequent discussion, we would like to clarify whether our course offers are suitable or whether an individual offer such as a guided tour with a cultural guide or a voucher for a museum visit would be more suitable for the applicant. All applicants will receive a cultural recipe,” explains Roos.
The interviews and questionnaires also help the project coordinators to find out to what extent the cultural recipe is having an effect after the two creative courses have been completed – do the participants still feel alone or does the shared experience encourage them to take a course in a more independent in the future or to join a group? Has the feeling of loneliness eased and does the offer have a positive effect on other areas as well? With the COPE results, the cooperation partners want to demonstrate possible positive effects and develop new concepts against loneliness.
Roos is already certain of this: “Art creates experiences, attending a course expands one’s knowledge. And this always proves to be positive for mental health.
About COPE
“COPE – Culture On Prescription in Europe” is a joint project of the ISIS Institute for Social Infrastructure, the Frankfurt Health Authority and partners from Dublin, Bucharest, Gouda, Lisbon and Brussels. It has a duration of 27 months, which extends from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2024 and is co-financed by the Erasmus funding program of the European Union. The aim of the project is to support people suffering from loneliness and at the same time investigate to what extent loneliness and social isolation can be counteracted through newly developed arts and cultural programmes.
(Text: PM City of Frankfurt)
