A Healthier Canada

An Analysis of the Potential Economic and Social Impacts of Social Prescribing

Social prescribing is already making a difference in communities across Canada, strengthening connections between individuals, community, and the formal health system. It makes good sense that people and communities are healthier when they have access to person-centred navigation support, and health and care systems are seamlessly connected and collaborate to address the social determinants of health.


We know it works — successful projects across Canada and internationally confirms its impact. AT the same time, we need to build on regional evaluations and international research to better understand social prescribing’s value for all Canadians at scale.


To this end, the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing engaged KPMG LLP to perform rigorous analytical assessment of specific social and economic impacts social prescribing can drive in Canada, and an overall return on investment.


The findings demonstrate that social prescribing can play a transformative role in addressing the social determinants of health, reducing healthcare costs, and improving quality of life across diverse populations.

$4.43

Every dollar invested into social prescribing programs may return $4.43 to society through improved wellbeing and reduced costs incurred on the health system and government.

Key Findings:

  • Social prescribing delivers a return of $4.43 for every dollar invested.
  • Social prescribing leads to better health outcomes for two key populations in Canada — older adults and youth — improving overall wellbeing with significant reductions in healthcare utilization.


Analysis Highlights:

  • Supporting aging adults: Social prescribing supports aging at home, and can lead to fewer hospital admissions, emergency visits, and ambulance calls—resulting in improved quality of life and $268 million per year in healthcare cost savings.
  • Enhancing youth wellbeing: Social prescribing can support the mental health of young people, improve education attainment, and result in an additional $59 million in employment income per year.
  • Tackling Loneliness and Isolation: Across age groups, social prescribing can foster meaningful social connections and sense of community, improve mental health, and support physical health.
  • Chronic conditions and the social determinants of health: Social prescribing can especially benefit those with long-term health conditions, those who require mental health support, assistance with food and nutrition, help with financial or legal issues, and those require who assistance with home-based services.


Diving deep into these areas where robust public evidence exists, the analysis is clear: social prescribing is an impactful tool in the toolbox to improve the health and wellbeing of Canadians. And when social prescribing and communities are appropriately resourced, we can expect to see reductions in unnecessary health service utilization, and significant long-term cost savings.


French version coming soon.

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