{"id":125806,"date":"2025-09-01T22:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125806\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T22:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:27:10","slug":"arts-to-promote-mental-health-goal-of-new-university-of-michigan-clinical-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125806\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts to promote mental health goal of new University of Michigan clinical program"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANN ARBOR, MI \u2014 Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Arts Initiative have teamed up to launch Michigan ArtsRx<\/a>, a new clinical arts initiative to assist the mental health of students, UM affiliates and Ann Arbor residents through arts programming. <\/p>\n

Mark Clague, executive director of the UM Arts Initiative, said ArtsRx will invite the community to \u201cparticipate in artmaking\u201d and health professionals will be able to \u201crecommend arts participation as a non-clinical supplement to other health interventions that members of our community are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative will have two offerings: a pilot study where health professionals prescribe arts programming to UM students, and a self-prescription service where the larger university and Ann Arbor community can participate in arts events for their well-being through the ArtsRx newsletter.<\/p>\n

Clague said his team launched the program because he wanted to make it easier for the larger university community to access resources across departments, given the university\u2019s size.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things the arts initiative is trying to do is find opportunities within a very large, decentralized university to make connections across our ecosystem in order to bring new possibilities to life,\u201d Clague said. \u201cThe arts-prescribing program unifies our medical system with our arts ecosystem, which is, I would say, a place where there\u2019s been activity before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clague said he is excited to see UM clinical and arts teams collaborating on ArtsRx because the initiative will build a \u201ccollaborative structure to support this work\u201d and raise awareness of the need for arts programming and its benefits on mental health.<\/p>\n

Clague and Tessa Brinza, program manager and arts and health coordinator for the UM Arts Initiative, said there is growing evidence from the United Kingdom that arts participation benefits students\u2019 social connections, mental health and physical health. <\/p>\n

Brinza said, according to a study conducted by University Health & Counseling and Wolverine Wellness with 1400 UM students, that 70% of students \u201ceither often or some of the time felt lonely.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said, according to the survey, 64% of students would be more likely to attend an arts program if a health professional recommended it.<\/p>\n

Clague said the process of forming ArtsRx was \u201csurprisingly easy\u201d because the team is collaborating with two existing infrastructures. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about making a connection between two things that people usually have separated in their mind,\u201d Clague said.<\/p>\n

Brinza said the ArtsRx team has been \u201creally supportive\u201d at building momentum for the program.<\/p>\n

Looking into the future, Clague said he hopes the program will grow \u201cinto a larger, more comprehensive effort on campus.\u201d He said he wants ArtsRx to serve as a mental health and wellness model to other colleges and universities around the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the arts and emphasizing the social benefits of the arts as a way to really provide a different pathway for a healthy community,\u201d Clague said.<\/p>\n

Brinza said the initiative is a part of an \u201cinternational movement\u201d towards \u201cusing the different areas of arts and culture and movement and service\u201d to promote better health.<\/p>\n

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR, MI \u2014 Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Arts Initiative have teamed up to launch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-125806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}