Save the Date! In-Person Social Prescribing Conference 2024!

Join us in-person in Toronto, September 26 to 27, 2024, when we will host Canada’s first international social prescribing conference, featuring social prescribing champions from Canada and abroad! We hope you’ll join us to explore the transformative power of connection and to collectively propel this global movement toward holistic, equitable community health. Please mark your calendar and save the date! Stay tuned for additional details forthcoming in early 2024. We are excited to gather with you and learn together!

• Save the Date! CISP Conference 2024
• Meet Our Growing Team!
• Student Collective: Meet, Greet & Eat
• Social Prescribing in the City
• International Conference on Integrated Care
• Upcoming Events
• Online Learning for Link Workers
• Stay Connected with Us!
• Research & Publications
• Community of Practice
  

Meet Our Growing Team!

We’ve grown! We’re excited to introduce new members of the team working together and with our partners to advance social prescribing in Canada. Visit our website to learn more about each of the people contributing their expertise in project management, policy and government relations, education and learning, communications and knowledge mobilization, and events!

Social Prescribing Student Collective:

Meet, Greet, & Eat!

The Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective (CSPSC) is going on tour this fall! Members of the Collective and other students interested in social prescribing are invited to join co-founders, Caitlin Muhl and Le-Tien Bhaskar, for a social dinner and opportunity to chat about all-things SP! CSPSC Meet, Greet & Eat events will take place in Calgary (Oct.11), Vancouver (Oct. 18), and Ottawa (Nov. 8). Visit CSPSC on LinkedIn for more information and registration details! 

Social Prescribing in the City

In April 2023, graduate students from across disciplines and professions participated in a week-long intensive course led by CISP Senior Director, Dr. Kate Mulligan. The course, offered in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, introduced students to the theory and practice of social prescribing for healthy cities and urban populations. 

The in-person course included guest lecturers from across Canada and around the world, along with visits to social prescribing programs at St. Michael’s Hospital, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Evergreen Canada, and Rexdale Community Health Centre,

one of Canada's first adopters of social prescribing. Reflecting on the visit to Rexdale, Kate said “It's clear the students were bowled over by how integrated the program is there and how welcoming the people and space are.” 



Social Prescribing in the City will be offered again in spring 2024.

International Conference on Integrated Care 2023

CISP Director, Sonia Hsiung, had the opportunity to share about Canada’s progress toward integrated care through social prescribing in a plenary panel at the 23rd International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC23), held in Belgium in May 2023. ICIC23 brought together leaders, researchers, clinicians, patients and caregivers who are engaged in integrated health and social care delivery and design. 

Learn more about ICIC23 and find resources from the conference here.

On October 10 to 12, Healthy Aging Alberta and the Alberta Association on Gerontology will host the first-ever Healthy Aging Alberta Summit 2023. Reimagining Aging: Leading the Way for an Integrated Approach will be hosted in-person and virtually, with live sessions broadcast in real time. These three days of learning will bring together community organizations and systems partners to co-create a collaborative environment for an integrated approach to healthy aging for older Albertans. Visit the conference website to explore full details and register today! 

Cultivating Connections:

Pathways to Well-being

The Alliance for Healthier Communities Social Prescribing Virtual Conference returns this year on October 19! Dynamic discussions, a celebration of triumphs, and exploration of challenges will shape the day for Cultivating Connections: Pathways to Well-being, including two world-class plenary speakers. Following the conference, on October 20, community organizations are invited to participate in the Social Prescription for Human Connection event. Groups will host their own activities encouraging people to connect, while sharing their collective experiences on social media to amplify the power of social prescribing. Visit the Alliance for Healthier Communities website for full details and registration.

Canadian Caregiving Summit 2023

Most Canadians will need care or give care at some point in our lives, yet families are stretched thin, and our elders and people with disabilities are struggling. The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) is working to transform the experiences of caregivers, care providers and care recipients across the country. CISP Senior Director, Dr. Kate Mulligan, will be participating in a social prescribing panel discussion facilitated by Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective co-founder Caitlin Muhl. Be a part of building a national caregiving strategy at the Canadian Caregiving Summit, a three-day hybrid event in Ottawa, Ontario, from November 6 to 8, 2023. 

Online Learning for Link Workers

Healthy Aging Alberta has developed an online learning pathway for social prescribing link workers involved in their initiatives. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Beth Mansell, Project Manager, at beth.mansell@calgaryunitedway.org.

Stay Connected With Us! 

Follow us on LinkedIn and X where we share information, engage with others and collaborate on research, news and trends pertaining to social prescribing!

Connect with us on LinkedIn
Join us on LinkedIn! We've created four LinkedIn groups, with the goal of providing a space to connect, learn and collaborate with others who are working towards the integration of health, social and community care systems through social prescribing in Canada. Join below!

• Knowledge Mobilization Group
• Policy Group
• Clinical Group
• Research Group

Research & Publications

• Are social support, loneliness, and social connection differentially associated with happiness across levels of introversion-extraversion? Kiffer Card & Shayna Skakoon-Sparling, Sage Journals, 2023 
• Establishing internationally accepted conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing through expert consensus: a Delphi study Muhl et al., British Medical Journal, 2023   
• In-person interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness: An evidence and gap map Welch et al., SOC ARXIV, 2023 

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. It's a place where people who implement social prescribing initiatives or advocate for the social prescribing movement, can convene, connect and learn from each other.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.