When 11-year-old Sam plays the small, bright blue guitar she got for her birthday, she feels happy.
鈥淏ecause the music is like, calm,鈥� said Sam.
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 鈥極ld MacDonald Had A Farm鈥� and 鈥楾winkle Twinkle Little Star.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 so hard,鈥� said Sam as she tried to both sing and play 鈥極ld MacDonald,鈥� sticking out her tongue in concentration. Her teacher agreed.
This is : a non-medical approach to wellbeing that connects people to local activities, from nature walks to guitar lessons. In Sam鈥檚 case, her dad Mike says they saw a flyer in her pediatrician鈥檚 office for a program called .
鈥淪o we went on and called them and told them about Sam,鈥� said Mike. 鈥淎nd so they said, 鈥楥ome on. Let's start on this date.鈥� And we got matched up, and it has been great.鈥�
Sam had been introduced to the guitar at school and really wanted to learn. Plus, she has some learning differences.
鈥淎nd 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,鈥� said Mike.
, social prescribing has been a key component of healthcare for years. In Canada, funds put into social prescribing resulted in reduced health care costs, commissioned by the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing.
Here in the U.S, are putting resources into social prescribing, hoping to improve wellbeing 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.
鈥�They write a prescription鈥�
Dagny McKinley, the head of Undiscovered Earth, the non-profit 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.
鈥淔or 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,鈥� said McKinley.
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 .
For the art experiences supported by Prescription for the Arts, a mental health clinician or school counselor is usually involved.
鈥淪o that there is some sort of check in on the progress. Is this helping? Is this not helping?鈥� McKinley explained.
鈥業t helps them in a persistent way鈥�
suggests social prescribing increases wellbeing. At the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Dr. Marc Moss on healthcare providers as one of the principal investigators for the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab (CORAL), funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
鈥淚t's amazing how positive the data is,鈥� said Moss.
Over the past few years, hundreds of healthcare providers have taken the 12-week therapeutic arts course, focusing on visual arts, dance, music or creative writing.
鈥淪o in terms of improvements and symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, the symptoms improved by 25 to 35% compared to a control group,鈥� said Moss.
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.
鈥淪o the program not only helps people, but it helps them in a persistent way,鈥� said Moss.
Carly Gilliland refers to the arts as a 鈥渂eautiful container for expressing emotions,鈥� an idea that is part of her philosophy as a music therapist in Steamboat Springs.
鈥淭hat 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. 鈥淚t has a place to go.鈥�
This past school year, Gilliland led music experiences at an alternative high school in Steamboat, 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.
鈥淥ne of the students was like 'Tired,' Gilliland said. 鈥淟ike, yeah, me too, me too. Let's think more about that. Why are you tired? How does it feel? How did your day start?鈥�
Those words became the basis for a song. Gilliland guided her students through the songwriting process: from melody to lyrics to production.
鈥淚t starts something like 鈥�7:55, in the morning. I got a cat on my face,鈥欌�� sung Gilliland with a laugh.
The goal of social prescribing, she explained, isn't about the quality of the art but the experience of making it.
