Social Prescribing articles, research and reports
Social Prescribing’s Role in Improving Population Health, Dr. Kate Mulligan, Ontario Hospital Association, July, 2022.
https://www.oha.com/news/social-prescribing%E2%80%99s-role-in-improving-population-health
This article is part of a series exploring the concept of population health, and is based on an interview with Dr. Kate Mulligan, Senior Director, Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing & Advisor, health determinants & knowledge mobilization, Canadian Red Cross, and Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. This series features successful initiatives of health systems that have invested beyond their walls to improve the health of their communities.
We know social connection can make sick people feel better. Is it time to incorporate it into formal recovery plans? Christine Sismondo, Special to the Star, January 15, 2023
“I’m always interested in looking at what helps people thrive and there’s a lot of literature suggesting that it’s important to be socially connected,” explained Esme Fuller-Thomson, researcher and professor at U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “The gift of friendship is the gift that keeps on giving,” Fuller-Thomson added. “It gives mental health and it gives well-being so looking out for your more isolated neighbours, acquaintances and workmates is a nice start.”
Why Spending More Time With Friends Should Be Your Top New Year’s Resolution, December 08, 2022, Maryam Siddiqi
Why Loneliness Is Bad For Your Health | Chatelaine (ampproject.org)
Feeling lonely is more than just a bummer—researchers are increasingly sounding the alarm about its significant health ramifications. Our bodies send us signals when we’re thirsty or hungry, but not many of us realize that signals also exist when we’re in need of social interaction. That pang of loneliness that just hit you? It’s a sign from your body to spend some time with a friend. Statistics Canada’s 2021 Canadian Social Survey found that one in 10 people aged 15 and up said they always or often felt lonely, with young women and people who live alone reporting the highest levels of loneliness: 29 % and 24 % respectively. And a survey conducted by Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in January 2022 found that Canadians were lonelier at that point than at any other during the pandemic. Feeling lonely is more than just a bummer—researchers are increasingly sounding the alarm about its significant health ramifications.
Sometimes the most important prescription has nothing to do with medication, Dr. Dominik Nowak, Healthing, February 17, 2022.
https://www.healthing.ca/wellness/dr-dominik-nowak-social-determinants-of-health/
A good social prescription can be transformative, shifting the conversation between a patient and a doctor from asking 'What’s the matter with you?' to 'What matters to you?'
Social Prescribing: A Call to Action, Dr. Dominik Alex Nowak and Dr. Kate Mulligan, Canadian Family Physician, February 2021, 67 (2) 88-91.
https://www.cfp.ca/content/67/2/88
In both prevention and treatment, the biomedical model is focused on proximal causes, such as comorbidity and lifestyle, rather than fundamental causes, which are often social. Many in our professional communities feel underprepared and unsupported in addressing social needs, while others argue that social determinants of health are beyond the scope of primary care.
Using self-determination theory to understand the social prescribing process: a qualitative study. Bhatti S, Rayner J, Pinto AD, Mulligan K, Cole DC. BJGP Open. 2021 Apr 26;5(2)
Background: Social prescribing (SP) assists patients to engage in social activities and connect to community supports as part of a holistic approach to primary care. Rx: Community was a SP project, which was implemented within 11 community health centres (CHCs) situated across Ontario, Canada.
Aim: To explore how SP as a process facilitates positive outcomes for patients.
Design & setting: Qualitative methods were used. Eighteen focus groups were conducted at CHCs or by video-conferencing, and involved 88 patients. In addition, eight in-depth telephone interviews were undertaken.
Method: Interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically using a theoretical framework based on self-determination theory (SDT).
Results: Participants who had received social prescriptions described SP as an empathetic process that respects their needs and interests. SP facilitated the patient’s voice in their care, helped patients to develop skills in addressing needs important to them, and fostered trusting relationships with staff and other participants. Patients reported their social support networks were expanded, and they had improved mental health and ability in self-management of chronic conditions. Patients who became involved in SP as voluntary 'health champions' reported this was a positive experience and they gained a sense of purpose by giving back to their communities in ways that felt meaningful for them.
Conclusion: SP produced positive outcomes for patients, and it fits well within the community health centre model of primary care. Future research should examine the impact on health outcomes and examine the return on investment of developing and implementing SP programmes.
What better time to consider social prescribing? Bianca Carlone, National Association of Federal Retirees, June 8, 2020.
In April, when this article was written, the world was grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our governments were imposing various measures to slow its spread, including asking us to limit excursions outside the home and practice physical distancing. Writing an article about social-prescribing — in which health-care providers refer patients to non-clinical, community-based activities to improve their health and well-being — at a time when we are being asked to stay home seems counter-intuitive. However, self-isolation and physical distancing are presenting mental-health challenges for many, including feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Staying connected is at the heart of social prescribing and, now more than ever, we need to maintain our connection to our networks and communities, even if that means adapting the ways in which we do so.
Social prescriptions aim to ease patients' depression, loneliness, CBC News, January 1, 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/social-prescriptions-depression-loneliness-1.4962817
Museum visits and art classes shown to boost health, reduce need for medications and doctor's visits. When Tammy McEvoy was asked to share her time and crafting talents to engage with other patients at her local health centre, she ended up getting back as much as she gave — maybe more. McEvoy is one of 15 "health champions" at the Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre taking part in an innovative Ontario pilot project in which doctors or other practitioners write out a "social prescription" for patients experiencing depression, anxiety or loneliness that affects their sense of well-being. The concept — prescribing a social activity like taking a yoga class, visiting an art gallery or joining a knitting circle — has proven to be an effective tool in the U.K., where research has shown that not only do patients benefit from a mental-health boost, but many also end up with reduced medications and find less need to visit their doctors.
Why doctors are prescribing bingo, not pills, to keep patients healthy. CBC News,
posted September 30, 2018. Last updated: October 1, 2018.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/social-prescribing-loneliness-health-problems-1.4833088
Solving the problem of social isolation can prevent health problems down the road. A new initiative in Ontario will soon tackle some health problems by prescribing social activities instead of medication to people suffering from loneliness. The idea is inspired by a U.K.-based program which prescribes activities such as bingo, gardening and even visiting a coffee shop to patients. "You are defined by far more than your medical diagnosis," said Dr. Marie Anne Essam, a British doctor who leads the U.K. project, in an interview with CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning. "Social isolation [is] one of those things that can cripple well-being. [It] can lead to depression and can actually lead to physical health problems too."
Stressed? Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Shimi Kang has a prescription for you, Martha Perkins, March 30, 2017
Stressed? Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Shimi Kang has a prescription for you - Vancouver Is Awesome
Volunteering with organizations such as Big Sisters will actually help your brain cope with the pressures of modern-day life. Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Shimi Kang says our brains need P.O.D.: Play, others and downtime. Studies have shown that people who do something to help others will find their stress levels decrease by 70 per cent as the brain kicks in to reward good behaviour. This paradoxical solution — that we can cope with the stress of busyness by adding a new activity — is all linked to how our brains have evolved, she told the crowd at the Vancouver Convention Centre fundraiser. She was working with the World Health Organization in Geneva when it announced that stress is the number one health epidemic in the 21st Century.