Getting out of the house and being part of a social group can be the key to better overall wellbeing

Lifestyle changes like joining an art group or taking up dancing can be the small, simple changes that make a difference in your overall health, according to Amity Health’s Connected Communities practitioners.

Social prescribing is the term given to the practice of looking at both clinical and non-clinical remedies to people’s health and wellbeing, and according to Amity Health’s Connected Communities project co-ordinator Dorte Hansen, looking at the full picture of your health rather than just the physical can be key to better overall wellbeing.

“Social prescribing is recognising that something that we’ve known for a long time in health, but it probably hasn’t been formalised, is that there’s more to our health and wellbeing than just physical health, it’s also about our social and emotional wellbeing,” she said.

“GPs and and other health services haven’t often had the tools in their toolkit to do more than prescribe medication, even though they know, for example, that it might be loneliness that’s at the bottom of a person’s issue.

“Social prescribing is really about trying to provide a tool to connect people with services and programs in their community that matter to them, and that can then help them to improve their health and wellbeing beyond medication and prescription.

“It’s really a personalised service, it’s about finding out what matters to you.

“So someone might, for example say, I’ve always wanted to dance, but never had the opportunity, or it might be a mother of three that used to be an artist, but then has not been able to because of having the kids.

“It’s about finding out what matters to you, rather than what is wrong with you.”

Link worker Lewis Kind is one of the practitioners working behind the scenes who connects customers with services and groups in the community that might interest them.

“It’s very much that kind of non-clinical element of health that’s been missing, and has been missing for a little while.

“Getting to the heart of social wellbeing is about identifying what your interests are, and then looking at what the community has to offer.

“Quite often, actually, there’s a lot going on in Albany, and people don’t necessarily realise that.

“They think Albany is this little country town, but the reality is it’s very well-connected, and my job ultimately is linking people to services that already exist, that are already very well-established.

“It’s also about helping to motivate and instil that level of confidence so people can go out into the community and be more social and do things they enjoy, and often that plays a role in helping their overall health and wellbeing.”