One of the webinars from then titled From Evidence to Action: The Role of Social Prescribing in Health Systems was moderated by CISP’s Kate Mulligan. It is that point around “evidence” that comes up time and again regarding how this model of care works within our health systems.
In a news post Social Prescribing: The Evidencethis past weekend on the World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) website, there was an update around data on social prescribing in practice in the UK. As I’ve noted before, this is of interest because it is in the UK where, according to legend, social prescribing had its origins in the 1980’s; by way of example, the London-based Bromley by Bow Centre opened a community-developed social prescribing centre in 1984.
Bromley by Bow makes the simple case for social prescribing in one of its opening statements: “We support people with a wide variety of integrated services based on their individual needs, because we know that health is primarily driven by social factors, not medical ones.”
With this forty year development in the UK there are some basic statistics about the reach of social prescribing cited here by the Global Social Prescribing Alliance (part of the WHIS). In England there are now 3300 Social Prescribing Link Workers in primary care work. Think of Link Workers as community connectors or coordinators in a referral network between health and social care services, and in this case 5.5 million GP referrals have been made since 2019.
Of the many areas of evidence in social prescribing effectiveness referenced in this UK news, one that stood out for me was that of “reduced sick notes, chronic pain, anxiety, and depression among people supported by link workers”. Perhaps there is cause for some concern though that social prescribing is still largely unknown by the general public, for as the article says there are evidence gaps and ergo, opportunities for building public awareness.
What is called for in this news piece is more community-led implementation and integration within neighbourhood health systems, which brings me to another point of interest here in Canada where the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing drives the dialogue for strong evidence to support the movement, and where it is shown that two significant, highly visible professions play a connector role in the community referral network between health and social care services.
Back to March this year, in another webinar –Building IntegratedCare: Diverse Approaches to Social Prescribing in Canada,we learned of the emerging role of pharmacists. Making a clear case for this was Tarek Hussein, a Kingston, Ontario Pharmacy Manager, who is also Chief Development Officer for the International Social Prescribing Pharmacy Association. Hussein described pharmacists as being at the “front door of our medical system”.
Another major link, maybe we could say a side door, is the role of paramedics. Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC) now features the pan-Canadian Paramedics and Social Prescribing program, for as HEC says, “paramedics are in a unique position to support social prescribing. They meet people where they are – at home and in the community.” After my own encounters with paramedics many years ago I can only say great things about their profession.
On the HEC website there are three guide documents that serve as a baseline for this program’s value in the encouragement of paramedics to advance the practice of social prescribing and integrate it into their core work:
All this proves opportunity for more room in the bandwidth for social prescribing. And part of that is for more voices from everyday people to advocate for it in their lives; discuss it with your doctor, your local pharmacist and, while you may not have the presence of mind in an emergency, should you find yourself in the company of a paramedic, ask them about it. For as HEC points out – “In some paramedic services, over 50 percent of 911 calls are for non-emergencies. Social prescribing, led by paramedics, can help.”
Postscript. On July 17, 2026 the ON LINE Global Social Prescribing Summit will be held, hosted by the Global Social Prescribing Alliance If you scroll down this GSPA Summit link you can register for this event and watch the videos from the 2025 summer event.
