Country Correspondent: Roosa Tikkanen
In Montreal, primary care physicians can prescribe a free trip to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to help alleviate patients’ and family members’ symptoms and anxiety, as part of a new partnership between the museum and Médecins francophones du Canada, which represents French-speaking physicians in Canada. The museum houses the largest art therapy center in North America. Ontario has also announced plans to launch a one-year pilot funded by the provincial health ministry to allow social prescriptions for a wider set of benefits, from cooking classes to practical needs such as help with tax returns. The concept of “social prescriptions” was first introduced in the United Kingdom, where they are part of a national strategy to combat loneliness.
