A Nanaimo doctor is recommending continuing education as part of social prescribing.
Social prescribing is a holistic approach to address loneliness, isolation and sedentary behaviour by referring patients to non-clinical services to improve health and well-being.
While Mid Island Elder College, which offers low-cost general-interest courses on a wide range of subjects to adults 50 and up, is one example, Dr. Adam Hoverman with Wellington Medical Clinic said it's not necessarily about the activity itself, but finding something that interests the person to give them greater social connection.
"At the heart of it, it's really the aim of, how do we manifest improved social well-being alongside physical and mental well-being?" Hoverman asked. "We have … a definition of health from 1948 that is the 'complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.' We're well on 75 years later, and I think we're still working towards that aim of improving overall well-being through both health and health care."
According to Island Health, increased sedentary time is associated with health risks including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This results in a 50 per cent increase in early mortality among lonely people.
To combat it, social prescribing enables primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and well-being more holistically.
Under the social prescribing model, any Nanaimo primary care doctor can refer patients to a link worker who connects patients with a range of local volunteer, community and social groups. Older adults without a family doctor can access the Nanaimo Family Life Association's community connectors, who operate under the same model.
"It's less about the activities, it's more what is the answer to something that matters to you," Hoverman explained. "If someone says they love dragon boating, or ukulele classes, or chair yoga, or walking groups or cooking groups – the social prescribing link worker and the community connector through Nanaimo Family Life are programs or pathways helping to improve access to programs or activities that bring a sense of belonging and manifest responses to … the loneliness and social isolation epidemic."
Hoverman said Elder College got his attention after he heard Robin Fisher, Elder College's president, speak last in summer about his vision for Elder College as a well-being tool for older adults.
"That's just continued to inspire me for thinking that Elder College is a tremendous opportunity worthy of maintaining its programs for helping connect people…" he said. "Social prescribing in itself, like Elder College, is not a panacea, it's simply a way to find greater connection in these disconnected and fragmented times."
Wellington Medical Clinic is serving as a sponsor for Elder College's recent 'prescription pad' card campaign, which directs people to the http://eldercollege.org as a "powerful antidote to the epidemic of social isolation and loneliness."
"Lifelong learning keeps people healthy and prevents disease,” Fisher said in a press release announcing the campaign. “We are encouraging people to prescribe the Elder College cure to their friends and neighbours. And to give a prescription pad to their family doctor."
