Apr 20, 2025 08:00:00

Swiss city tests 'art therapy' by offering free access to museums as mental health treatment

The Swiss city of Neuchâtel has started an 'art therapy' program that allows people to enter art museums for free if they have a doctor's note. It was devised based on the idea that art can be a form of mental therapy.

Stressed? Sick? Swiss town lets doctors prescribe free museum visits as art therapy for patients

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-stressed-sick-swiss-town-doctors.html

Starting in 2025, the city of Neuchâtel will run a two-year pilot program that will allow patients to visit four of the city's museums free of charge as part of their treatment.

This comes on

the back of a 2019 World Health Organisation report which found that art can enhance mental health and wellbeing, reduce the effects of trauma, and lower the risk of cognitive decline, frailty and premature death.

Art relaxes the mind and acts as a kind of mental prophylactic, and visiting a museum requires exercise such as walking and standing for long periods of time. The main purpose of walking to the museum and enjoying art is to improve both the mind and body.

If a doctor determines that a visit to a museum would be beneficial for the patient, the doctor can give the patient a 'museum prescription,' which allows the patient to enter the museum. The admission fee is covered by the local government, and a budget of 10,000 Swiss francs (approximately 1.73 million yen) has been set aside.

Marianne de Reynier Nevsky, the city's cultural manager who conceived the program, said it was based on a similar idea rolled out at a museum in Montreal, Canada, in 2019. 'A lot of people can benefit from it: people with depression, people who have trouble walking, people with chronic illnesses. It gets them out of the house and gets them walking more,' Nevsky said.

Dr Marc-Olivier Sauvin, head of surgery at Neuchâtel Hospital, said: 'I have already prescribed the museum to two patients to help them get in shape before surgery. Usually, people are reluctant to go for a walk before surgery, but I think the museum prescription will be very helpful for these patients, as it gives them the opportunity to exercise both physically and mentally. As a doctor, I think it's great to be able to prescribe a visit to a museum instead of a medicine or a test that they may not enjoy.'

If the program is successful, it could be expanded to include other artistic activities, such as theater and dance, according to Neuchâtel city councillor Julie Coursier Delafontaine. Art therapy is not covered by the Swiss national health insurance system, but Coursier Delafontaine hopes that if the results are strong enough, it may one day be covered by insurance.