The main objective of the COPE project was to show that combining culture and health promotion can create new ways of adult education and reduce loneliness and social exclusion among vulnerable groups, such as older people living alone or people with mental health problems. The Culture on Prescription project aimed to contribute to the health and well-being of these people by encouraging their active participation in cultural activities, strengthening their social interaction and helping them to feel more resilient to the challenges of their daily lives. The project aimed to disseminate knowledge about a promising, tested and proven approach to tackling mental health problems, and to provide models that could be easily adapted in parts of Europe where practical experience of social prescribing programmes is still limited. It therefore aimed to provide practical support to facilitators in delivering low-threshold education to people experiencing or at risk of loneliness or social exclusion, and to guide policy-makers in adopting the Social and Cultural Prescribing approach.
In 2019, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre found that more than 75 million European adults get together with family or friends at most once a month, and around 30 million European adults often feel lonely. The mortality risk of loneliness is comparable to that of obesity and smoking. Persistent loneliness is also associated with unhealthy behaviours, mental health problems and poor cognitive performance. Lonely people also report more pessimistic judgements and feel more threatened by life situations. They also face the potential double penalty of poorer health and being stigmatised as socially inept. The Social Prescribing scheme in the UK has shown that it can be effective for people who are lonely and feel isolated, and that it is associated with a range of positive health and well-being outcomes when used as an adjunct to medical treatment. In addition to addressing the needs of people suffering from loneliness, we saw a need for knowledge of social and cultural prescribing concepts, as well as educational concepts and tools to facilitate the introduction of such prescribing schemes.