Under the high ceiling of the former pharmacy school in Montpellier (south of France), which has been converted into a contemporary arts centre, André, Kevin and Ambre work on clay under the watchful eye of an artist. On the recommendation of their psychiatrist, they take part in a pilot program called Art on Prescription.

Of very different ages and life histories, but with shared episodes of depression or anxiety, these three patients, followed by the Psychiatric Emergency and Follow-Up Unit (Dupup) of the University Hospital Montpellier, were previously not particularly interested in art. But they still respected that special treatment to the letter, for a period of a few weeks.

For the Mo.Co, the city’s contemporary arts center, and the University Hospital’s psychiatric department, the “conviction” is shared: There is “an urgent need to raise public awareness of the mental health benefits of artistic engagement,” emphasizes Professor Philippe Courtet of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Montpellier.

This project, unprecedented in France and inspired by experiments carried out in Belgium, Canada or the United Kingdom, has one goal: “to get patients out of the hospital by prescribing them art,” adds the professor.

“It’s liberating, it’s tremendously liberating,” confides Ambre Castells, a 17-year-old high school student, smiling as she pours paraffin into a clay mold: “When I’m here, it’s like anything that could make me walk is bad . »

Kevin Gineste, 23, saw his “natural fear subside”. “You can go to psychologists, but the best thing is to do things with my hands to bring out what’s inside me,” he says, pleased to have met “people with similar problems,” and now ready to ‘go the museum more often.

Crafted against the blues and fear. Sylvain Thomas/AFP

Break the isolation

“It’s a workshop around soft, malleable materials that deform and change from solid to liquid when touched with the hand. This allows you to immerse yourself in the experience,” explains visual artist Suzy Lelièvre while viewing.

At her side, dressed in a white apron to avoid getting dirty, André Broussous, 60, is delighted that this time he has “improved” his “way of using (his) hands” after entering the year of the… Aegis of the dancer Anne Lopez was dedicated to physical expression.

“The choreography gave me the art of fitting into a group, which was not easy at first, and more confidence in my way of expressing myself, of moving,” he recalls.

“Mental illnesses such as depression lead to social isolation and a lack of self-esteem, which helps to break up in the group,” emphasizes Philippe Courtet, himself an art lover.

“It’s not artists going to patients here, it’s patients going to museums, meeting artists and entering their universe,” emphasizes Élodie Michel, another psychiatric expert at CHU.

In 2022, this program included three groups of about ten patients. On the program: one-month artistic journeys that combine visits to exhibitions and practical artistic workshops.

At each session, they were accompanied by an art student and a psychiatric intern, who was responsible in particular for the scientific evaluation of the project.

Completely free of charge for participants, the “art on prescription” is funded by the Mo.Co, the Regional Health Authority, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) and the city and metropolitan area of ​​Montpellier, which has within its walls the oldest medical still in operation faculty of the world.

“We hope that this program (can) be extended to everyone and be reimbursed by social security,” Mo.Co director Numa Hambursin pleads, emphasizing that treating physicians in Canada can already prescribe up to 50 museum visits a year for patients .

Philippe SIUBERSKI/AFP