‘I’ve particularly specialised in using the arts to make people better so that could be poetry, visual arts or sometimes even drama, and I’ve also used things like gardening, I’ve prescribed allotments to people and that sort of thing.
‘Going to one comedy workshop or going to one stand-up comedy event or having a comedian come in and teach kids how to improvise and giggle at themselves, it’s got an effect for 24 hours and surely that’s better than prescribing antidepressants.’.
Craic Health hopes this will help people who are lonely, isolated and vulnerable get involved with their community – and that ‘comedy on prescription’ could reduce NHS costs.
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Labour MP Dr Simon Opher, who has warned in parliament about the ‘pandemic of over-prescription’ and says ‘making people laugh can avoid the need for medication’, is one of the scheme’s backers.
