Collecting people – a reflection on social prescribing
Does ‘social prescribing’ guide people towards behaviours that can help them prevent or recover from ill health? Or does the term medicalise ordinary community-based activities in an unhelpful way? Whatever your viewpoint, we can all agree it’s a hot topic as the government plans a big shift towards neighbourhood-based care and illness prevention.
A new book of essays, Social Prescribing: Paradigms, Perspectives and Practice, explores the topic from diverse angles. Chapter authors include key thinkers, policy makers and practitioners in the field, including Michael Dixon, Michael Marmot, Cormac Russell and our own Brendan Martin, as well as people with direct experience – positive and negative – of the practice.
In a charming personal reflection here, the book’s editor, the nurse and social entrepreneur Heather Henry, explores why and how she ‘collected’ them all together.