Ahead of the Beyond the Status Quo Summit, on April 9, we’re sharing stories of communities coming together to do things differently in Edmonton. For more information about the summit, click here.

A doctor can prescribe a variety of medications and therapies, but what about non-pharmaceutical health measures? Through the practice of social prescribing, local seniors are reconnecting with their communities and living healthier lives. 

“Social prescribing is a holistic wraparound approach to healthcare that bridges mental and physical health,” says Krista Mulbery, Social Prescribing Project Manager at the Edmonton Seniors Coordinating Council (ESCC). "ESCC provides the coordination for a collaborative of partners to deliver social prescribing. The partner agencies refer people to community-based programs."

“Through this approach, healthcare professionals can refer patients to community-based programs to improve their health and enhance their quality of life,” says Mulberry. “The program connects older adults to non-medical supports offered through community, so people can thrive in the environment they choose to live in.”

The ESCC does its work specifically with older adults, which has given them a chance to connect people to help outside a medical environment. 

“We focus on the older adult community, aged 55-plus. The social prescribing model has link workers employed at partner agencies, so when they’re referred by a health care worker of any kind, the intake form that is sent would describe what type of social support this person might need,” says Sheila Hallet, Executive Director at ESCC. “That could be anything, including housing being at risk, financial issues or transportation such as trouble getting to medical appointments or mobility issues.”

For example, if someone is being discharged from a hospital there might be certain things people need to remain in the community. Partner agencies work with discharge planners at the hospital so the community can support those needs. 

“Maybe someone is struggling and can’t afford nutritious food. Through the program we can help themto access food security supports through the local food bank or Edmonton Meals on Wheels, while looking for longer term sustainable solutions to address client need,” says Krista. “We also see a high need to address social isolation - many older adults we work with are very socially isolated so being able to connect them to a recreation center or social group - we know that has huge impacts on people's mental health and general happiness and well being.” 

These factors are called the social determinants of health. 

“We have understood through research that social prescribing exists in other areas around the world,”  says Sheila. “When you help with the social determinants of health that contributes to 80% of the person’s health outcomes. Just medical care alone is not going to take the pressure off the healthcare system, the health professionals are realizing.”

Program partners are the natural fit to work with social prescriptions received from health professionals because they already have connections in the community.

Krista connects with healthcare partners and works with the collaborative partnership of organizations who provide direct community supports. These partners include: Sage Seniors Association, Jewish Family Services Edmonton, The Multicultural Health Brokers, Caregivers Alberta, Edmonton Meals on Wheels, and Drive Happiness. In addition, Sage Seniors Association provides a centralized intake for the social prescribing program, while ESCC takes care of coordination, evaluation and communications. 

Funders for the project include Healthy Aging Alberta and the Government of Alberta.

“When this idea came up it was from a big network gathering we facilitate regularly ,” says Sheila. “The idea had a seed there and eventually we worked with partners to create a business case and look for funding. The first pilot was about trying to get people out of hospital beds in 2022 at the tail end of Covid, as they were trying to free up hospital beds.” 

ESCC tracks the number of rides, meals, and home support hours as one part of the service to help demonstrate the impact of the program.

“Total number of referrals to the end of January was 1590 since inception,” says Krista. “One of the interesting things in Alberta is that the model looks different than in many other places in Canada and globally. In other places Social Prescribing is highly integrated into the healthcare system. Here, in Alberta these roles are embedded in the community which can be used to grow capacity in the sector.

“Community knows community,” she says. “When we have a network of organizations that are there to support each other we’re growing community capacity. That’s one of the biggest differences between other models and the Alberta model we’ve implemented.”

It takes time and trust to build collaborations and work in a different way. But through this program, healthcare workers are more knowledgeable about what kinds of supports are available in the community, have access to formal referral pathways to access community supports and are able to follow how. and are able to follow how the social determinants of health affect a client’s medical outcomes.