New York based solutions journalist and author Julia Hotz paid a visit to Nanaimo to talk social prescribing – a treatment modality that lets doctors put patients in touch with non medical supports to address unmet needs.
Hotz says social prescribing comes from the idea that healthcare issues are being driven by things in our environment.
“Stress, loneliness, physical inactivity, these are risk factors for some of the biggest disease burdens we have today. So what a social prescription does, it’s a referral from your healthcare professional to a community activity or resource. So it can be art classes, it can be a cooking workshop, it can be a bicycling group,” she said.
“The whole ethos is about shifting from healthcare focusing on what’s the matter with you to what matters to you.”
Hotz recently published The Connection Cure, a book on social prescribing, which she says began in its modern form in the UK.
“ While more and more people are going to the hospital, the doctor, for social reasons, the people who need medical care aren’t getting it. We’re put on wait lists. We’re told that yeah, you could see a therapist in six months. You’re told wait times are longer, these sorts of things,” she said.
“Social prescribing emerged first in the UK as a response to this. Maybe if health care, if doctors could get involved in directing people who really don’t need clinical care to activities and resources in their community, like an art class, a fishing club, a dance group, then this would reduce pressure on health care over time, right?”
Nanaimo has its own social prescribing program, which for the past few months has been available for doctors to prescribe to anyone over 55. Kirsten Schuld, the project lead, says over 250 people have been through the program since it became fully operational.
“ The physician would put your prescription in, and that goes and connects you to somebody called a link worker or a community connector,” Schuld said. “They will call you and then they’ll meet you for coffee, kind of whatever you need, they’ll get to know you, and they’ll ask you what matters to you, and they’ll try and work with you to find an activity that you could get enrolled in, to gain social support, to get out of your house, whatever that looks like to you.”
“Sometimes it’ll look like, here’s your pottery course, do you think you can get there on your own? Most people can’t if they’re needing this. So it will look like, why don’t I come with you? Why don’t I sit down and do the pottery course with you if needed? Why don’t I introduce you to somebody that attends the course or the leader of the course, et cetera, and then follows up with them at the end -hey, how did that work? Do you think that’s a good fit? Do you need help getting there? What can we do to support you to keep doing this course or finding something else that’s a better fit?”
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