New Research Article Defines Strategies to Guide Implementation of Arts on Prescription Programmes

A new peer-reviewed article by our project partners from the National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark has just been published in Arts & Health. The article, Identifying and defining implementation strategies for arts on prescription programs – a realist informed scoping review, establishes the first comprehensive set of implementation strategies for Arts on Prescription (AoP) programmes, offering a structured foundation for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working at the intersection of arts, health, and social care.

Citation: Hinrichsen, C., Hassing, H. R., Mairey, I. P., & Broholm-Jørgensen, M. (2026). Identifying and defining implementation strategies for arts on prescription programs – a realist informed scoping review. Arts & Health, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2026.2631581

A First-of-Its-Kind Taxonomy for Implementation

Arts on Prescription (AoP) programmes, where creative activities such as visual arts, music, dance, and cultural participation are used as non-clinical interventions to enhance well-being, have seen growing international interest. Yet until now, systematic guidance on how to implement these programmes effectively in practical settings has been limited.

To address this gap, the authors conducted a realist-informed scoping review that integrated findings from published literature with stakeholder insights gathered through expert workshops in the context of the Interreg BSR project Arts on Prescription in the Baltci Sea Region. The result is the identification and definition of 48 distinct implementation strategies, organised into five thematic categories:

• Awareness of AoP

• Knowledge and Competences Related to AoP

• Organizational Set-up, Collaboration, and Infrastructure

• Facilitating AoP Experiences

• Evaluation and Feedback

This taxonomy provides a common language and conceptual framework for describing what actions support the adoption, sustainability, and effectiveness of AoP interventions across diverse settings.

Why This Matters

Until now, most AoP research has focused on outcomes at the individual participant level, such as improvements in mental health, well-being, or social connectedness. The current article shifts the focus upstream toward how programs can be planned, coordinated, and embedded within health and community systems – a perspective that is essential for scaling and sustainability. This work helps bridge a persistent gap between evaluation research and implementation practice.

For example:

• Awareness strategies can help practitioners and referrers understand and value AoP approaches.

• Competence-building strategies strengthen the skills needed among providers and facilitators.

• Evaluation and feedback strategies embed learning processes into ongoing programme refinement.

By offering a clearly defined set of strategies grounded in evidence and stakeholder experience, the article equips public health professionals, cultural organisations, healthcare providers, and programme designers with actionable direction for building robust AoP initiatives.

Looking Ahead

The authors highlight that while the taxonomy lays essential groundwork, future research is needed to investigate how, for whom, and under what conditions these strategies are most effective. Such work can help prioritise strategies for specific contexts and improve the generalisability of AoP implementation efforts.

This publication represents a key step toward more systematic, evidence-informed integration of arts-based interventions into broader health and well-being policy and practice.

Programme Manual Online

Choose