# Personalized arts prescriptions for behavioral health challenges in the US

> **NIH NIH R43** · SOCIALRX INC · 2024 · $241,102

## Abstract

Project Summary
There is an acute need to address rising mental health concerns among both older and young
adults, as seen by recent increases in depression, anxiety, social isolation, and psychiatric
crises. However, many barriers currently exist to the provision of comprehensive, holistic, and
person-centered care to meet these needs. Behavioral health provider shortages, high costs for
mental health care, lack of sufficient insurance coverage of services, and stigma associated with
mental health diagnoses or medication are a few of these challenges. Integrated care delivery
methods that account for the social aspects of health and leverage community resources to help
meet people where they are, such as social prescribing, can help address barriers and improve
access to needed care. Social prescribing models are prominent in other countries with public
healthcare systems, and they are growing in popularity in the US as a method for addressing
health disparities and providing community-centered care. Additionally, there is a large body of
evidence that points to the benefits of engagement with arts, art therapy, and cultural
enrichment activities for mental health and social connection, both of which have implications for
the cost and treatment of physical health conditions. Art Pharmacy is transforming mental health
care treatment engagement by harnessing the power of arts and culture for enhancing health
and integrating this into the US healthcare system. We are an arts-based social prescribing
company that provides personalized arts prescriptions to help patients at risk of or experiencing
mental health or social isolation concerns, while addressing the stigma of mental health
treatment and helping fill the gap in behavioral health service shortages. Our smart matching
technology enables us to tailor recommendations for arts and culture engagements based on
patient characteristics, health goals and conditions, and artistic tastes to maximize the health
benefits of arts engagement and prevent deterioration of health. In this way, we are creating and
supplying a “precision medicine” approach for mental health care that centers an individual’s
preferences and helps support social connection to promote health and well-being. This grant
application will support the further development of our smart matching technology by leveraging
machine learning to create an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that will
enable us to scale our approach across the nation and provide arts and culture-based social
prescriptions to everyone who needs them.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11006635
- **Project number:** 1R43AT013060-01
- **Recipient organization:** SOCIALRX INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Lucy Bailey
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $241,102
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-04 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11006635

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11006635, Personalized arts prescriptions for behavioral health challenges in the US (1R43AT013060-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11006635. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*