By Kendall Worth!
Well Readers, Do you remember back to my BLOG post Dated May 31, 2024 Where I originally broke the news about a conference I wanted to attend, that involved me making a trip to Toronto? Then in my more recent BLOG post, I talked about how I consider being asked to attend another achievement. Then in this post, I also touched on the relationship between the need for a Basic Income and Social Prescribing.
Thanks to a group of people in my life that support me, I actually made it to the Conference. Without your support, attending this conference would never have happened.
Considering what I learned at this Conference, I am going to follow this post, with a separate post that will be an open letter to Nova Scotia Government about why we need a Social Prescribing Organization in Nova Scotia. However one major piece of knowledge which I took away from the social prescribing conference that relates to my experience gained at a one yer project called All Together link .
During one of the sessions, at the conference, the speakers talked about looking between the social prescriber and the client. I talked to several people about how All Together Link was not a social prescribing organization. however I also talked to people about how the work of All Together Link was somewhat related to social prescribing. The same speakers went on to talk about, when it comes to creating a social prescribing organization, the social precriber need to look at each individual situation and explore what works.
So lets take a moment to pretend (during the time of All Together Link, the host including myself, Margaret Ann McHugh, and from time to time, other volunteer hosts, who was the social precriber? For you reading my blog for the first time - at All Together Link none of the volunteer hosts were professionals or worked doing social prescribing as a job. But looking back and just pretending, First – During All Together Link’s existence we had people from many different walks of life, who attended our events. Second – the situation of everyone who attended was different but what everyone who attended the events had in common was that everyone who attended would benefit from a social prescribing organization, if Halifax had one. I say this because one of the things i learned at the conference is a social prescribing organization has to be inclusive of all ages and disabilities.
At this conference, I got to meet in person the contacts I have had in Ontario who first contacted me about the idea of Social Prescriptions. In this Link I first Presented the idea of social prescribing in the now defunct, Nova Scotia Advocate. They were very happy to finally to meet me in person after reading so much about who I am over all of these years. There was however limited time for us to sit down and talk at the Conference. I was invited to network with several people present at the conference representing social prescription programs. As well as Ontario, which I knew about, I have learned that there are Social Prescribing organizations in BC, and Alberta. Quebec also has a small project. I had learned that most people who access the social prescription programs in BC, Alberta, and Quebec are Seniors, and in some cases, younger people with social anxiety. In Ontario, younger people living in poverty can also access the Program. I will talk more about why it needs to be a mixed group, in Nova Scotia, in my next post.
While in conversation with people at the conference, there was talk about the Ontario Disability Support Program and how it does not provide enough money to live on. When I told people what our income assistance are like in Nova Scotia, they all agreed that this is not enough money to live. Talks about addressing food insecurity, needing better access to transportation in rural areas, and the housing crisis also came up in conversations at the conference.
The other important thing to bring up from the conference is I learned about the really awesome program for social prescribing that is offered in the UK. The speaker, talked about how in the UK, and other jurisdictions around the world that have social prescribing organizations, money comes directly from the government Ministry of Health. Any of the social prescription/social prescribe organizations in Canada are privately funded.
I will end this post by asking you to watch for my next post where I will be writing to the Government and Nova Scotia Health about bringing Social Prescribing to Nova Scotia. I will also be providing the business case for why we need this in Nova Scotia.
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