This World Health Organization report illuminates the widespread yet overlooked impacts of social isolation and loneliness on individual health and society as a whole. Based on current evidence, it emphasizes the need for immediate, coordinated action and presents practical, scalable approaches to enhance social connections. calls on policymakers and stakeholders across all sectors to prioritize social health alongside physical and mental health. The report envisions a future where stronger social ties lead to improved well-being, fewer preventable deaths, and reduced social and economic challenges.
Browse “Health Agencies”
2023 International Creative Aging Summit
Paradigm Shift: Advancing the Cultural Rights of Older People
A Free, Virtual Convening on June 6 and 7, 2023
The 3rd annual International Creative Aging Summit channeled the collective energy of more than 250 arts and aging leaders from around the globe towards an investigation of the profound shifts needed — individually and collectively — to champion and adequately invest in older adults’ creativity and cultural agency.
Through facilitated conversations and peer-to-peer exchange, this dynamic and collegial convening connected a worldwide network of colleagues working in diverse communities and sectors to advance creative aging. The Summit was designed for those who develop, deliver, and/or support arts programs by, with, and for older people including professionals from the social and aging services, and the technology, education, cultural, heritage, housing, and health sectors.
Hosted by a different country each year, the 2023 Summit was organized by Lifetime Arts (United States) in collaboration with Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA) in England and Armas-festival, City of Helsinki, and Koy Kaapelitalo in Finland.
What is Social Prescribing? (Video)
From the YouTube Description:
This short animation explains what it social prescribing is, how it works and the benefits to individuals’ health and wellbeing.
Why Some Doctors Are Prescribing Ballroom Dance or a Day at the Museum
An Excerpt from the Article:
Hashmi had, in effect, written Ruth a social prescription, in which a clinician refers a patient to a community or cultural activity such as an art club, music performance, dance class, volunteer activity, or nature walk in order to bolster their mental and physical health. As chronic health conditions, an aging population, and declining mental health overwhelm the nation, prescription drugs are not the magic bullets they’re sometimes expected to be—and that’s particularly true right now, during a global pandemic and the greatest natural experiment of social isolation in history. Doctors have very few tools to address the social determinants of health. Could social prescribing be part of the solution?
To begin answering that question, social prescribing needs a formal definition. The English might have the best claim to creating it, since their National Health Service (NHS) is the only major health care system that has funded social prescribing nationally. Dr. Michael Dixon, a pioneer of the social prescribing movement in England and chair of the College of Medicine, keeps the parameters broad. “I suppose I define it as anything that the patient and the link worker think will help get them to a better place,” he says.
Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing
From the Website:
The Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing (CISP) is a new national hub to link people and share practices that connect people to community-based supports and services that can help improve their health and wellbeing.
Establishing Internationally Accepted Conceptual and Operational Definitions of Social Prescribing Through Expert Consensus: A Delphi Study
From the Abstract:
Introduction With the social prescribing movement gaining traction globally, there is a need for an agreed definition of social prescribing. There are two types of definitions – conceptual and operational, meaning agreement on both types of definitions is needed.
Objective The aim of this study was to establish internationally accepted conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing.
Design A three-round Delphi study was conducted.
Methods Consensus was defined a priori as ≥80% agreement. In Round 1, participants were asked to list key elements that are essential to the conceptual definition of social prescribing and to provide corresponding statements that operationalize each of the key elements. In Round 2, participants were asked to rate their agreement with items from the first round for inclusion in the conceptual and/or operational definitions of social prescribing. Based on the findings from this round, the conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing were developed, including long and short versions of the conceptual definition. In Round 3, participants were asked to rate their agreement with the conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing.
Participants This study involved an international, multidisciplinary panel of experts. The expert panel (n=48) represented 26 different countries across five continents, numerous expert groups, and a variety of years of experience with social prescribing, with the average being 5 years (range = 1-20 years).
Results After three rounds, internationally accepted conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing were established. The definitions were transformed into the Common Understanding of Social Prescribing (CUSP) conceptual framework.
Conclusion This foundational work offers a common thread – a shared sense of what social prescribing is, which may be woven into social prescribing research, policy, and practice to foster common understanding of this concept.
Sound Health: A NIH-Kennedy Center Partnership
From the Website:
Music can get you moving, lift your mood, and even help you recall a memory, but can it improve your health? The National Institutes of Health and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have partnered to expand the scope of an initiative that NIH has had with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) for several years called Sound Health. The partnership, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts, aims to:
- Expand current knowledge and understanding of how listening, performing, or creating music involves intricate circuitry in the brain that could be harnessed for health and wellness applications in daily life,
- Explore ways to enhance the potential for music as therapy for neurological disorders,
- Identify future opportunities for research, and
- Create public awareness about how the brain functions and interacts with music.
Sound Health: Music Gets You Moving and More
From the Article:
Music has been around since ancient times. It is part of every known culture. It can get your foot tapping, lift your mood, and even help you recall a distant memory. Did you know that music can bring other health benefits? Scientists are exploring the different ways music stimulates healthier bodies and minds.
“When you listen to or create music, it affects how you think, feel, move, and more,” says neuroscientist Dr. Robert Finkelstein, who co-leads NIH’s music and health initiative.
“Today, modern technologies are helping researchers learn more about how the brain works, what parts of the brain respond to music, and how music might help ease symptoms of certain diseases and conditions,” he explains.
Providing Creative Health in Gloucestershire During Lockdown
From the Report:
During the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the development and design direction of the five Arts on Prescription (AoP) providers in Gloucestershire, who currently make up Gloucestershire Creative Health Consortium (GCHC), shifted to meet new ways of working and requirements. This paper explores some of the key aspects of how work was tailored, allowing for ongoing and greater access to the services provided, and explores outcomes over the lockdown periods from 23rd March 2020 to 19th July 2021.
The five Creative Health providers are Artlift, Art Shape, Cinderford Artspace, The Music Works and Mindsong. Between them they work with adults, older people, children and young people, covering a wide range of health conditions such as dementia, chronic lung conditions, diabetes and mental health. They offer a variety of arts-based interventions such as circus and carnival skills, music and singing, visual arts and photography, as well as the clinical intervention of Music Therapy. They are funded by a variety of income streams, however the joint Creative Health work they undertake is funded by Gloucestershire’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The qualitative and quantitative data, along with anecdotes and reflections are all kindly provided either by these organisations, or individuals who took part in Arts on Prescription activities/interventions during the lockdown periods.
Culture on Prescription Pool Project in Denmark
From the Website:
Four municipalities, Aalborg, Nyborg, Vordingborg and Silkeborg, have developed and tested courses with cultural activities that have been targeted at citizens with mild to moderate depression, stress and anxiety. Eight out of 10 participants have experienced that their health has improved after a 10-week course, and 3 out of 4 have assessed that prescription culture has greatly or somewhat improved their well-being.