By Kendall Worth
Some Background on “Social Prescription”
My regular readers will already know all about social prescription, - but let me open this BLOG with a bit of background for new readers.
Social prescription is an approach to health care and well-being that addresses not only physical health and economic well-being, but SOCIAL factors that impact well-being, such as loneliness and isolation, and the need for personal growth, creativity and community connection.
The SP approach recognizes that there are many social dimensions to poverty and mental health, and that these dimensions – including social isolation and loneliness – need to be addressed when we are discussing effective, long-term solutions for these problems.
As I have explained in earlier BLOGs, social isolation is not just about loneliness. It also has serious negative impacts upon people’s daily lives, impacting people who do not have a name to provide on forms that require an emergency contact, or are obliged to cancel day surgeries because they have no one to accompany them to and from hospitals.
Through my BLOG, I have been exploring and promoting the importance of a Social Prescription approach to be integrated into programs here in HRM and in fact, across all Nova Scotia. For a number of years, I have been making the case for the creation of a Social Prescribing Organization (SPO) here in Halifax. You can trace the evolution of my thinking and advocacy on this issue through my BLOGs.
Just to recap, my first introduction to the concept of social prescription came in 2019 through a friend with whom I was reflecting on the many challenges that people in our community face in terms of developing and maintaining individual friendships, never mind building the sort of social network of many friends that professionals say is so important for everyone’s personal well-being. I wrote about my reflections in an article in the Nova Scotia Advocate and cited a recent CBC news report about a social prescription pilot project in Ontario.
Since then, I have been learning more about social prescription and even attended a national conference on the topic in 2024. There is now a national organization with an excellent website with lots of information on the SP approach, case studies, lessons learned, etc.
I decided to focus my promotion of social prescription primarily upon the creation of an SP organization more than a simple SP program. This is because here in Nova Scotia, programs and projects always seem to come and go. Programs often have short-term life spans, narrow goals and limited community input. For the social prescription approach to have a real impact in Nova Scotia on how we address poverty, mental health and disability issues, we will need a more substantive presence and ambition. Ideally, a Social Prescription Organization would comprise a wide range of its own programs and projects while also advocating for other agencies and initiatives to adopt the social prescription approach in their own activities.
Some Recent Conversations on Social Prescription:
To be blunt, the SPO idea has not been warmly embraced here in Nova Scotia. Not yet, anyhow.
My conversations with those who are financially “better off” in HRM often reflect a common misunderstanding. This misunderstanding is rooted in the ambition of the SPO to help marginalised and vulnerable people to develop social relations. People interpret this to mean that an SPO is just a tax payer funded social club. This perception is not universal and is hopefully diminishing with education and advocacy. But this perception remains widely shared and undermines efforts to seriously advance the SPO conversation.
One criticism I recently heard from two new readers of my BLOG relates to the extent of the social isolation issue and how widely spread it is in our community. I have discussed that issue in a BLOG last year: the statistics are uncertain and so we must estimate numbers. The lack of baseline statistics makes it hard to measure the impact of social prescription programs, - which is another reason that government may be hesitant to fund such programs.
Another issue is that community drop-in centres, such are found at various soup kitchens and food banks, already provide spaces for people to gather and socialize. Some people feel that there is no reason for the Government to fund a duplicate of something that already exists. I have made the case that such drop-in centres do NOT provide the sort of space, services or community that would happen in an SP-style centre. But that argument often falls on deaf ears.
The Challenges We Face
One of the major challenges faced in promoting the Social Prescription approach is that those people who would be the primary beneficiaries of an SPO are also some of the least likely people to get involved in a campaign or advocacy effort. Their social isolation and related anxieties block them from actively participating in organizations or protests, and few are willing to speak openly about their situation.
They are also hesitant to fill in surveys or write letters in support of an SPO, meaning that it becomes hard for others to make a compelling case for the severity of the underlying problem and the need to roll out innovative solutions like social prescription.
It is not that the people in my community are not hardy or determined. I have written in an earlier BLOG how some walk up to 20km per day just to get around between soup kitchens, social agencies and food banks. Their day-to-day focus is entirely on self-care and survival: participating in a campaign that is uncertain as to results is just not high on their list of priorities.
As the two new readers and I discussed, in these circumstances it will be necessary to build a coalition of agencies and individuals committed to the social prescription approach. This is of course, easier said than done even with organizations that have a clear commitment to social justice.
For example, ACORN is an excellent community-based campaign organization, but it focuses its efforts upon tenants’ rights and affordable housing. Similarly, District Labour Councils are major supporters of social justice work across Nova Scotia, but at core are organizations focused on workers rights and organized labour. Somehow we need to figure out how to engage such organizations (and there are many more) in support of the Social Prescription approach for the marginalised and isolated people living in poverty in our community.
Mobilizing the likely beneficiaries of an SPO – and bringing them together in a coalition with allies and organizations remains our biggest challenge.
Kendall
Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and
tries to make ends meet on income assistance
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