Social Prescribing USA Newsletter June 2024

Incredible momentum for the field....

This newsletter is the Social Prescribing USA Public Town Square—a central place to catalyze our growing movement in the U.S. We’ll share insights from the network, philosophy on advancing the movement, important articles and books about the ever-increasing field, updates on the rapidly growing social prescribing community, and a calendar of upcoming events. 

Have things to share in our next newsletter? Please let us know!

Social Prescribing USA is dedicating this newsletter to honor Loneliness Awareness Week, June 10-16, 2024. Here is more information.

The Connection Cure

It has been an exciting month for Social Prescribing USA and for the movement. This week, author Julia Hotz officially published The Connection Cure. This is a foundational moment for social prescribing in the U.S. as this is the first book on the field in the U.S., and it will bring attention to what is happening domestically and around the World. 

Last week, we hosted a special prelaunch event for Julia’s book in San Francisco. In attendance were local leaders in the field and other health leaders. Julia spoke about her book with Dr. Carla Persiniotto, a geriatrician at UCSF and one of the country’s leading experts on social connection and health (pictured below Julia left, Carla right). 

You can read an interview we did with Julia about her new book HERE, and also related articles HERE and HERE.

To learn more about Julia’s book, including upcoming book tour stops and more interviews, visit her dedicated book site HERE.  

Julia’s book is the first of several coming out this Spring and Summer on the importance of social health and social connection. You can read more about some of these books HERE. 

Growing with the Movement

Social Prescribing USA itself is growing to lead the expanding movement in the U.S., keep up with what is happening in the 9 different sectors, and be a partner with other countries! First, we have started to roll out a new website with new features. Visit the site at SocialPrescribingUSA.com. We are also increasing our capacity with the help of additional experts and will have more to say about what this means for us and the movement later this Summer. Our newsletters will also look different starting next month. Stay tuned for more exciting news about our growth!

Please help this growth happen by forwarding this newsletter to others interested and encouraging them to sign up for the newsletter and consider joining the growing Community of Practice. They can sign up for both on our website, SocialPrescribingUSA.com.

We are also starting to grow a parallel Health Professional Community of Practice for our physicians, FNPs and PAs, OTs, nurses, and other health professionals. To make social prescribing widespread, we will need all hands on deck aligned and advocating for this U.S. healthcare shift! Please encourage the health professionals you know to sign up for our Community of Practice or contact info@socialprescribingusa.com.

Upcoming and recent books:

The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier. Kasley Killam. To be released June 18, 2024! See her partnership with the NYT this week: Butterfly or Firefly: What’s Your Friendship Style?

Other books on social connection can be found HERE.

The Place of All Possibility (to be released 7/16/24) by Rabbi Adina Allen reveals the spiritual underpinnings of creativity to help readers access pathways to possibility in their own lives. Putting ancient Jewish wisdom in conversation with contemporary disciplines of art therapy, liberation theology, and creativity research, this book invites us all to rediscover our place in a world of mutual thriving.

It is designed not only for Jewish readers but for a broader audience seeking to draw on ancient wisdom to seed imagination and employ the forces of creativity to transform our personal lives, communities, and ecosystems. It also helps us explore and befriend the unexamined places in our hearts and souls as we embark on our journey toward self-discovery.

Packed with practical exercises to inspire your creative practice, The Place of All Possibility is for all people—from any tradition or none—who seek a world of imagination, abundance, and joy. 

Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. Dacher Keltner. January 2, 2024. Presents a sweeping investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive feeling. Revealing new re­search alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our ev­eryday lives leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide for how to place this emotion as a vital force within our lives.

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross. March 21, 2023. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts—and how this knowledge can improve our health, enable us to flourish, and build stronger communities.

Media:

Shifting the focus from loneliness to social health. Kasley Killam. STAT Health News. June 3, 20024.

You’re Not Sick, Your Environment Is. Julia Hotz. Slate Magazine. May 26, 2024. Mental health and the value of social prescribing.

The Museum and the Mind. May June 2024. 

The Loneliness Curve. NYT. May 6, 2024. 

Why a Little Trip to a Museum or Concert Can Be So Good for Your Mental Health. May 3, 2024. Self Magazine.

‘Hey doc, my planet hurts. Can you write me a prescription?’ May 1, 2024. Northwestern.

Greenspaces And Cardiovascular Health, Circulation Research. Rachel J. Keith et al.25 Apr 2024. Discusses the relationship between green spaces and chronic disease.

Striving to Connect. Health officials are raising alarms about loneliness and isolation. Can researchers identify what helps. Science. April 24, 2024.'

We Are Connectors - The Connector Model. 2024 . Sharing Learning and Toolkits from Around the World around connectors in the community.

Elizabeth Markle, Community As Medicine (TED 11/23) videos. 

Wisdom 2.0 April, 2024.

• Community As Medicine: Vitality (Day 1)

• Community As Medicine: Vulnerability (Day 2)

• Community As Medicine: Creation (Day 3)

18 Ways to Spread Joy on Random Acts of Kindness Day – And Everyday AARP. February 16, 2024.

May You Give and Glow. Stephen Post. Simplify Magazine. September, 2023.

Nature and mental health. Mind.org. 2021. Explains how nature can help your mental health. Gives tips and ideas to try, and suggests where to go for more information.

The art of life and death: 14 year follow-up analyses of associations between arts engagement and mortality in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. BMJ 2019. It is an oldie but a goodie - reminding us of the value of the arts in living longer.

Compassion, Caring, and Service - Stephen Post collection of articles.

Calendar:

June 10-16, 2024. Loneliness Awareness Week.

June 19-20, 2024. 5th International Social Prescribing Conference, UK. 

June 25-27, 2024 ASPIRE's International Social Prescribing Conference. Sydney, Australia.

July 27, 2024 One Nation / One Project - Arts for Everybody. Will be celebrated in 18 cities around the U.S.

Aug 3, 2024.  World Health Innovation Day

September 26-27, 2024. Advancing Social Prescribing for Health and Wellbeing. Toronto. Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Dr. Alan Siegel will be one of the keynotes.

Feb 8, 2025. Social Prescribing Virtual Conference, Benjamin Goldman Foundation. More info is coming.