Through a “purpose-built” technology, Craic Health has tied up with National Health Service (NHS) connected Social Prescribing programmes to trial “Comedy-on-Prescription” for what it dubs as the known side-effects of laughter to combat mental health issues such as stress and isolation.
The tech firm explains: “The definition of Craic means ‘enjoyable time spent with others’. At Craic, our mission is to lead a cultural shift by making comedy accessible to everyone. We aim to unite people – locally and globally – through the shared joy of laughter.
“We believe comedy is an untapped opportunity to improve health and wellbeing. Our goal is to make comedy easier to access and help communities experience its mental health and social benefits.”
It has received support from Westminster Council and One Westminster charity as part of wider “Social Prescribing” initiatives in collaboration with the NHS.
The charity states: “Social Prescribers support patients who have an unmet need that, if left unaddressed, could create additional vulnerabilities for the patient or spiral into further issues. Social Prescribing is a preventative service that deals with social, emotional and practical needs.”
Last month in the House of Commons, Labour MP Simon Opher as a medical doctor who has been calling for greater use of social prescriptions spoke of his visit to a Comedy-on-Prescription event at St. John’s Wood Library in London.
Dr Opher told MPs: “We need to wean ourselves off medications… because people have become a bit over-medicalised, we have 10-minute appointments and no psychological therapies. We must also make use of social prescriptions, available to the NHS, where we can prescribe to patients something that is not medical. We need to de-medicalise what is going on. That can include lots of different things, such as exercise and being very creative.
“Making people laugh can avoid the need for medication. We need to look at those things much more seriously and get people off tablets.”
Craic Health’s trial programmes will include curated comedy panel game show events, comedy workshops and general stand-up comedy shows across London venues before expansion across the UK and beyond.
*Info: Craic Health; Social Prescribing
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