This is a national first. The Department of Yvelines is launching, this December, a brand new innovative system called SolYmusées, which will allow caregivers to offer museum prescriptions to their patients.
Have you never heard of it? Neither do we. This device was launched for the very first time in 2018 in Quebec, before being tested in numerous museums. “In the field of health, culture, without being curative, can strongly contribute to the quality of life of people in pain,” explains Joséphine Kollmannsberger, deputy vice-president for culture and tourism within the departmental council. Indeed, museum prescriptions would be particularly effective in cases of pathologies linked to stress, personality disorders and in people having to deal with physical or moral pain.
The Department of Yvelines therefore becomes the first community in France to deploy the system on this scale: caregivers will have the choice between 18 cultural establishments to which to redirect their patients. Among them, the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine Inland Shipping Museum, or the Iron House, the Toy Museum and the Villa Savoye in Poissy. “The SolYmusées program reflects two objectives of our departmental policy: on the one hand, to make culture as accessible as possible, and thus respect the cultural rights of everyone, on the other hand, to make culture a factor of well-being” .
An extremely varied panel of health and social support professionals will be able to issue prescriptions, from doctors to nurses to psychologists. Moreover, any health or social professional can request to join the system. “Requests will be studied on a case-by-case basis,” specifies the Department.
