"What if, before you were released from the hospital, on top of medical advice, someone instructed you to sign up for, say, a Spanish class as part of your recovery plan?

Or, instead, to spend a few hours a week volunteering at the local dog rescue?

Thanks to “social prescribing” programs, which are drawing attention to the importance of social connection in the healing process and better health outcomes in general, this kind of advice is becoming more common. The growing movement is one that’s supported by recent research from the University of Toronto showing that, across a range of illnesses, people who were “thriving” in recovery all had one thing in common — social connection."