Links2Wellbeing - OACAO

Links2Wellbeing

Check out our video to learn about the positive impacts of the Links2Wellbeing project through the voices of healthcare providers, staff, volunteers, and participants at Seniors Active Living Centres across Ontario!


What is Links2Wellbeing?

Links2Wellbeing (L2W): Social Prescribing for Older Adults aims to transform the way healthcare providers link older adults in Ontario to social and recreational opportunities. Bringing together the social and medical models of health and wellness, L2W enables family physicians, nurse practitioners, and other allied health providers such as social workers, community paramedics, and pharmacists to refer socially isolated older adults to community programs using the familiar and trusted process of writing a prescription.

Links2Wellbeing is delivered by OACAO in partnership with the Alliance for Healthier Communities—a vibrant network of community-governed, team-based primary healthcare organizations dedicated to supporting people across the province who are facing the highest barriers to health and well-being.

This project builds on the pioneering work of Rx: Community, a made-in-Ontario social prescribing program that began in 2018, as well as OACAO’s pilot project SITS Rx (Social Inclusion through Social Prescription) that ran from 2020-2021. Powered by generous funding from The Waltons Trust, the Links2Wellbeing project began with Phase 1 (2021-2024) and is now successfully implementing Phase 2 (2024-2028)!

What is Social Prescribing?

Bridging clinical and social care, social prescribing enables healthcare providers to address the social determinants of health by formally referring patients to non-clinical supports that are chosen according to a person’s interests, goals, and gifts.

Within the Links2Wellbeing project, reasons for referrals often include loneliness and social isolation. Given that these are non-medical challenges, they can be difficult to address through conventional means of clinical care.

As a strengths-based approach, social prescribing enables people to direct their own care. It empowers people to improve their health and well-being by developing new skills, participating in meaningful activities, and becoming more connected to their communities.

Social prescribing moves away from asking people, “What’s the matter with you?” to asking, “What matters to you”?

Some of the benefits of social prescribing include:

  • Strengthening social and community connections and expanding networks of peer support
  • Improving physical health, fostering emotional and mental well-being, and reducing loneliness
  • Empowering individuals to identify their needs and values and to connect with what matters most to them
  • Helping reduce emergency department and primary care visits
  • Enabling healthcare providers to use their time more effectively by directing clients to supports that can best address their non-medical needs

Learn More

Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing:  www.socialprescribing.ca

Alliance for Healthier Communities:  www.allianceon.org/Social-Prescribing

National Academy for Social Prescribing:  https://socialprescribingacademy.org.uk/

Are You a Seniors Active Living Centre or Older Adult Centre?

Links2Wellbeing is open to all OACAO member centres and Seniors Active Living Centres.* There are spaces available!

By joining our growing network, you can engage volunteers in meaningful ways; create new referral pathways; build your membership; access microgrants to reduce participation barriers (e.g., subsidies for membership and program fees); join provincial and national communities of practice; and more!

Each year, there is a rolling application deadline until the limited number of spots are filled. Please email Dena Silverberg, Links2Wellbeing Project Coordinator at dena@oacao.org to learn more!

*Not yet a member of the OACAO? We encourage you to reach out to discuss participation options.

Are You a Healthcare Provider?

Click on the map of Links2Wellbeing partners to find information for participating Seniors Active Living Centres or Community Health Centres near you!

 

Click on this map

What’s the Impact of Links2Wellbeing?

Throughout the project, healthcare providers, staff, volunteers, and clients have told us about the incredible impact that social prescribing has on people’s health and well-being.

Together, their testimonials create a social prescribing community quilt where each square reflects the stories of those whose lives have been touched. This community quilt speaks to the ways in which the project has helped enhance social skills, rekindle social connections and a sense of purpose, create close collaboration between community agencies and healthcare providers, reduce primary care visits, increase participants’ sense of purpose, and encourage them to give back to their communities.

Explore our Social Prescribing Community Quilt to read about the project’s transformative impact!

To understand the project’s impact, each year we also invite participants to respond to three questions:

  •  “What is the most significant change that has happened to you since you started
  •  “Why is this change significant to you?”
  •  “How has this change impacted your life?”

The stories gathered demonstrate the remarkable impact that participating in SALCs through a social prescribing pathway has on people’s lives.

To explore key themes and testimonials, check out our most recent Client Stories Report.

What’s the Data?

Links2Wellbeing Media Coverage 

Funding for the Links2Wellbeing project has been generously provided by The Waltons Trust