Popolo day care service in Japan helps older people to stay in their community and function to the fullness of their ability. The service helps them maintaining, improving or relearning social life skills and activities of daily living.
Supporting healthy ageing through social prescribing
Social prescribing is a means for healthcare workers to connect people to a range of non-clinical services in the community in order to improve health and wellbeing. Social prescribing can help to address the underlying causes of patients’ health and wellbeing issues, as opposed to simply treating the symptoms. Social prescribing can take various forms, but all involve connecting patients to resources in their communities based on individual needs.
WHO in the Western Pacific recognises social prescribing as a vital tool in achieving integration of health and non-health services, one of the core objectives of the Regional Action Plan on Healthy Ageing in the Western Pacific. With support from experienced international practitioners, WHO has developed:
- A toolkit for community health centres and policy makers explaining how to implement social prescribing schemes.
- A WHO Academy online training teaching key aspects of the social prescribing practice.
This material is relevant for both high- and low-resource settings. It is a step forward in implementing community-based integrated care for the benefit of older adults across the Western Pacific Region.
To further advance the evidence base, World Health Organization collaborated with The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific on The Series on social prescribing in the Western Pacific, which brings together regional evidence, implementation experiences, and evaluation approaches from across the region. https://www.thelancet.com/series-do/social-prescribing
