By Kalpana Jain, Illustration: Anastasiia_New/iStock, Harvard Public Health, February 13, 2023
Doctors aren’t known for prescribing museum visits, dance classes, nature walks, or volunteering. But such social prescriptions are now becoming commonplace in more than two dozen countries. And in the spring of 2023 the first U.S. initiative of its kind will let some New Jersey health providers choose whether to instruct patients to attend free arts and culture events.
Social determinants—the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age—are known to shape health. Studies show one in five doctors’ appointments in the United Kingdom are for non-medical reasons such as loneliness, financial stress or poor housing. But doctors don’t treat social conditions, with some exceptions. Instead of a health care model based entirely on pills and procedures, where doctors ask patients, ‘what is the matter with you,’ this concept makes a paradigm shift to asking ‘what matters to you,’” says Bogdan Chiva Giurca, a London-based physician and a champion of social prescribing in the U.K. and globally.
The U.K.’s National Health Service integrated social prescribing into its programs in 2019. Community health workers known as “link workers” meet with patients and connect them with resources ranging from recreational activities such as book clubs or art classes to social support services such as finding housing aid. Giurca says the consultation also improves health, because it helps patients feel listened to. Link workers are fully engaged with patients, even accompanying them to the activities or finding someone who can.
Comments (0)