Performing Medicine awarded funding for social prescribing programme in Southwark

Performing Medicine has been awarded funding by Healthy London Partnerships (HLP), in partnership with Arts Council England and the Mayor of London, to run a pilot social prescribing programme in Southwark Council to help improve people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Performing Medicine is one of six arts and cultural organisations to secure funding which will enable GPs and other health and social care professionals across the boroughs of Southwark and Merton to refer people to arts-based mental health programmes as part of a social prescribing approach.

Meeting the stringent criteria, Performing Medicine successfully demonstrated how we would meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of people in the borough of Southwark, highlighting the quality of our track record in arts and health work, and detailing our specific approach to delivering and supporting cultural social prescribing.

Our Creativity, Culture, Health workforce development programme will run for up to 6 months and is open to: creative practitioners and cultural organisations; primary care staff; linkworkers and integrated care system leads.

Jo McLean, Executive Director said, “Performing Medicine has been pioneering arts based training in healthcare for more than 15 years; we are both well-placed and proud to support Southwark Council to use the arts to improve the health and wellbeing of its social prescribing workforce.

With 900,000 referrals to social prescription expected by 2023/24, according to the NHS Long Term Plan, it is vital that the workforce at all points in the chain are effectively skilled if this support is to effectively reach and benefit those who need it most; Performing Medicine’s innovative training programme will ensure that this complex, cross-sector workforce is equipped with the skills needed.”

Recently Performing Medicine was also awarded funding from the GLA’s Culture and Creative Industries Unit for the research and scoping phase one of the programme.  This latest funding success will enable completion of phase two of the project.

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