Social Prescribing Lab- Design a Social Prescription for Yourself

Feeling isolated and looking for a community? Social Prescribing is a new social health platform for reconnecting people back into community to alleviate loneliness. This experimental session will introduce participants to the concepts of social prescribing, help participants create their own social prescription, and identify resources in Kansas City to implement their prescriptions. This session will include interactive creative engagement, a space to rekindle old interests and hobbies, and a space to reimagine something new (and concrete-with an actual written prescription) to alleviate isolation and/or the existential dread of our complex era that keeps us home on our couches.

This group is part of a social prescription pilot program designed by Sherri Jacobs, MS, LCMFT, MA, ATR. Social prescribing is a public health initiative that cultivates social engagement through actual prescriptions written by health providers to address social isolation and loneliness. Prescriptions connect people to activities that reflect their interests through arts, movement, volunteering, or nature engagement. This model has been implemented in 30 countries and is very new in the United States. This experimental session will explore an avenue of social prescribing to help participants to identify their interests and foundation for a social prescription.

“What is the matter with you?” is the common question asked to patients by health practitioners. Health providers who engage in social prescribing also ask the question, “What matters to you?” Patients’ responses determine the type of social prescription they receive.

This session is part of a series of groups designed for group participation with a goal of finding connection in shared interests, creative activity, and social engagement. This is part of a pilot model designed to be replicated in community centers. This pilot also offers measurement tools for tracking the success of the program and the small pilot designed by Sherri Jacobs. Kansas City is participating in a five year pilot in partnership with The Neuro Blueprint for the Arts and ArtsKC. This project is also part of Social Prescribing KC

Host or Publisher Sherri Jacobs