Message From the Project Lead

As we approach the end of the year, I want to extend deep gratitude to all of you for being a part of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Thank you for connecting with us in 2022. Without your enthusiasm and energy, we wouldn’t be where we are now.

This year has been one of growth, development, and opportunities for CISP. Since our launch, our partnership has been constantly growing across Canada and internationally. Together, we are working toward a world where people and communities across Canada are healthy, resilient, and flourishing – leading on their own health and determinants of health with the support of well-connected community, social, and health sectors.

This is a season of joy and rekindling connections, and CISP is focused on strengthening this connection with everyone from coast-to-coast.

And as we step into the new year, I am wishful that we can continue to grow and enhance social prescribing to drive positive impacts on health, wellbeing, and wider outcomes by building on strengths and gifts of individuals and communities. Stay tuned for new resources, webinars, and knowledge sharing events to come.

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year!

Srija

Project Lead, Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing

The official launch event for CISP was held on October 6th. Speakers included Dr. Andrew Boozary, Dr. Grace Park, Sonia Hsiung, and Dr. Kate Mulligan. If you weren't able to attend the event or would like to view it again, you can read a brief summary and watch the recording.

Map of Social Prescribing Initiatives in Canada

CISP and the Alliance for Healthier Communities has launched a crowd sourced map of social prescribing initiatives in Canada. You can check it out on our website. Connect with organizations in your region to learn more or to collaborate.  If you would like to add a social prescribing initiative to the map, please contact us at CISP@redcross.ca.

Community of Practice

The Canadian Social Prescribing Community of Practice is a collaborative, interdisciplinary collective of people in discussion about how to implement and/or embed social prescribing in health and social systems. With cross-sectoral members from the arts, health care promotion, academia, and other sectors, this Community of Practice is co-hosted by the Alliance for Healthier Communities, the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing, United Way British Columbia, and the Older Adult Centres Association of Ontario.Quarterly meetings are recorded and held at 9:30 a.m. PST/12:30 p.m. EST on the second Tuesday of the month in January, April, July and October. Summary notes are provided after each meeting to all members of the CoP. Please email communications@allianceon.org for more info on how to join.

Communities of Interest

CISP is bringing together experts to raise awareness and support strategic actions to advance social prescribing across Canada. Communities of Interest have formed in the following areas:

• Clinical
• Policy
• Research
• Knowledge Mobilization and Training

We invite those with expertise and interest to connect with peers and advance social prescribing within these specific topic areas to join our Communities of Interest.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us at CISP@redcross.ca.

Recent Events

CISP is committed to growing our reach, celebrating new and successful practices, and building the momentum around social prescribing. We are pleased to share some of the recent events that we have taken part in.

• Caregiver Centered Care - Supporting Family Caregivers to Navigate Health and Community/Social Care Systems: Three Navigation Models (September 20th)
• Humanities and Human Flourishing Project - Arts on Prescription: Fostering Wellbeing through Social Prescribing and the Arts (October 19th)
• Design for Social Prescribing: Bridging Silos for Health Promotion (October 27th-28th) In this first-of-its-kind convening, 20 diverse leaders, including Dr. Kate Mulligan, gathered in Boston, Massachusetts to explore how design methods and frameworks could help accelerate and expand the social prescribing movement in the United States.
• OPHA Fall Forum on the importance of social prescribing from a public health perspective (November 9th)
• On Aging: Canadian Conversations on Social Prescribing with Healthy Aging CORE (November 10th)
• Family Medicine Forum (November 9th-12th) At this year's Family Medicine Forum, social prescribing was identified as being 1 of 4 big ideas for changing the future of family practice. Two panels of clinical leaders from BC and Ontario spoke on the importance and challenges of social prescribing in family medicine, with Natasha Beaudin, Dr. Dominik Nowak, Dr. Gary Bloch, Dr. Karin Kausky, Dr. Grace Park, Dr. Lara Kent and CISP Director Sonia Hsiung.
• 1st Asia Pacific Social Prescribing Conference (November 29th) Dr. Kate Mulligan represented Canada in her keynote speech on social prescribing advocacy across stakeholders.
• Waterloo Wellington Older Adult Strategy 13th Annual Knowledge Exchange in Geriatrics - Social Prescribing: Accessing Community as a Resource to Enhance Health Outcomes (November 30th)
• Global Social Prescribing Arts for Brain Health  (December 6th)

Resources

Over the summer, Bridgeable released a report on the current state of social prescribing in Canada and a map that illustrates a high-level view of the current social prescribing pathway across a wide range of social prescribing initiatives in Canada. 

Recently, they presented their work and shared their full findings and recommendations through an interactive microsite. There you can explore their process, view their research, watch video reflections from social prescribing practitioners, and see their ideas for how their five building blocks for social prescribing could be implemented.

Social Prescribing: A Resource for Health Professionals was recently developed by the Centre for Effective Practice (CEP) in collaboration with the Alliance for Healthier Communities and the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Clinical leadership of the resource was provided by Dr. Dominik Nowak.

The social prescribing resource equips health professionals with practical tips, talking points, and tangible next steps to support them in integrating social prescribing into their practice, regardless of their practice model. This resource draws from the best-available evidence and guidance on social prescribing, and will continue to be built out and refined with feedback from clinical leaders. If you are interested in contributing to this work, please join our Clinical Community of Interest.

Research

The preprint for Establishing Internationally Accepted Conceptual and Operational Definitions of Social Prescribing Through Expert Consensus: A Delphi Study has been posted to medRxiv. Authors include Caitlin Muhl, Co-Lead of the Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective, and Dr. Kate Mulligan, Senior Director and Strategic Advisor for the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. The research team brought together 48 social prescribing experts from 26 different countries - including Canada, to reach consensus on the definition of social prescribing. They also transformed the results of this work into the Common Understanding of Social Prescribing (CUSP) conceptual framework.