‘Social prescribing’: Montreal physicians can now prescribe tickets to the orchestra

Music is good for the soul. At least that’s what philosophers like Plato and music legends like Elton John have been saying for years now, and it seems like Canadian organizations are starting to agree, as they’ve started a new incentive called ‘social prescribing’, allowing physicians in Montreal to prescribe concert tickets to patients.

“The real benefit of this program is really the concept of social prescribing, it’s about getting people to interact with their environments, to not be socially isolated and when you use music therapy it calms people down, it makes people feel good, it can help deal with stress, so there’s a lot of benefits to it,” said Dr. Christopher Labos, a cardiologist.

Leading the new phenomenon that’s slowly expanding across Canada is the Montreal Symphony Orchestra who has just teamed up with Médecins francophones du Canada, that will give each patient who calls with a prescription from their doctor, two free tickets to the orchestra.

“When I came on as the CEO of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, I thought there’s something that we can do to help people manage their stress by coming to the concert. So, I was there in my thinking and then I met with Médecins francophones du Canada,” said Mélanie La Couture, President & CEO of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

“They approached us initially because they wanted to find a way to ease the stress for doctors. So, that was the beginning of our discussion together and then we pushed it to see how we can actually reach patients with our program.”

The blossoming partnership has made it easy for physicians and patients alike to access the services, all physicians need to do right now is register with the Médecins francophones du Canada, and they’ll receive two prescriptions that they can give to two different patients. 

“We’re here every week presenting concerts. So, whenever the doctor decides to prescribe something to a patient, the patient can just turn around, call our customer service, and then we will offer options, but we’re there all the time. So I think the partnership is a really great one,” said La Couture.

Right now, the initiative is still considered a start-up project, with the OSM giving out tickets to 100 physicians, but they say they’re hoping to grow the project in the near future.

“It’s good to have people do these sorts of things, it’s good to remind people that there are often non-pharmacological things that they can do to help deal with stress and anxiety and a sense of isolation,” said Dr. Labos.

CityNews spoke to some Montrealers who explained what music means to them.

“Music means everything to me, I feel so good when I put on music – especially Latin music because I’m Latina,” said one Montrealer. “It’s such a nice initiative, it’s really good for patients, it’s perfect!”

Another saying, “If you relate music to something safe to you or something comfortable, you’ll always feel that feeling when you hear that music, so yeah, it could be used as therapy.”

While another said, “It means a lot to me, it helps me to be emotionally healthy, and also music helps me relax a lot.” Adding, “I really support this idea and I believe many people probably want to go to the orchestra, maybe they don’t have the financial support to do that, with this initiative I think more people will go and enjoy the music.”

Another Montrealer explained, “Music is like a checkpoint for me. When I hear music, I will always remember the first time I hear it, so it’s like a memory to me.”