Each day after school, my daughter and I sit down for a bit of “worry time” which is fast becoming “talk time”. It is an opportunity for her to share her worries and thoughts about things that she is struggling to shake off.
The idea of worry talk time was recommended by various books; “What to do when Mistakes Make you Quake” by Claire A.B. Freeland and Jacqueline B. Toner and “What to do when you worry Too much” by Dawn Huebner were two of the more recent books that have shaped this idea.
We are making good progress and she seems to be finding new ways to articulate and regulate her fears and manage her worries. We have upped our game in terms of play, arts engagement and exercise. We use a lot storyboarding.
Studies have pointed to the decline in the wellbeing of young people in Britain. An estimated 850,000 children and young people in Britain have mental health problems and related physical health problems.
Over ten years ago, arts on prescription or social prescribing as its often referred to evolved. It was set up whereby health practitioners referred people to a service or a source of support. The idea is to help people in their recovery through creativity as well as increasing social engagement.
Its true that we do need to develop and enhance our conversation about how we invest in the arts for communities and merge our practice to inbed this approach across all ages.
Social prescribing is a great idea and one I really value. The idea of working with health practices to prescribe arts and cultural engagement and enrichment, or libraries on prescription as well as leisure prescriptions. We need more!
For children it should be no different.
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/prescribing-arts-better-health
Carrie Creamer 