Health Beyond Healthcare: Addressing Workforce and Equity Challenges Through Community
Addressing workforce and equity challenges via Social Prescribing and “Community As Medicine” models
With a workforce crisis affecting many domains of healthcare, models like Social Prescribing and Community as Medicine can activate community resources, connecting clinics and communities to improve patient-centered care and reduce healthcare burden.
Watch this webinar featuring Dr. Alan Siegel of Social Prescribing USA, and Dr. Elizabeth Markle and Carolina Ayala from Open Source Wellness. (Learn more about Open Source Wellness’ “Community As Medicine” in our May 2022 webinar recording.)
Social prescribing offers an exciting opportunity and has implications for workforce burden and integrated care settings. There are a number of social prescribing efforts growing in the United States, with origins at the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom.
Efforts like Open Source Wellness’ “Community as Medicine” model are being evaluated by research teams at UCSF and Stanford, and show exciting outcomes like a 77% reduction in emergency department visits, a 43% decrease in depression, a 41% decrease in anxiety, and a measured increase in both social connection and wellbeing.*
Open Source Wellness (OSW) is an Oakland-based nonprofit with a mission to generate “Community as Medicine” by partnering with communities and healthcare to deliver joyful, trauma-informed, and culturally relevant programs for health, wellbeing, and human connection. OSW can be understood as a “Behavioral Pharmacy,” delivering on the “Behavioral Prescriptions” that primary care, specialty care, and behavioral health providers offer to their patients who are struggling with (or at risk for) behaviorally-mediated conditions including depression, anxiety, social isolation, diabetes, and hypertension. OSW partners with clinical providers and payors to deliver its experiential “Community As Medicine” model, achieving striking clinical patient outcomes and generating revenue for FQHC’s and other clinical delivery systems. Utilizing culturally-relevant health coaches and peer leaders to support diverse and transdiagnostic populations, OSW represents a next-generation behavioral health solution and a new way of organizing clinical delivery services.
Social Prescribing USA is the hub for the advancement of the U.S. social prescribing movement. Social prescribing utilizes the arts, nature, volunteerism, and local community organizations as medicine for patients of all ages. Social prescribing considers social health as important to a patient’s well-being as physical and mental health, and is a key tool to address the loneliness epidemic and the social determinants of health. It is founded on the principles of health equity. The use of our community resources as medicine is one of the next big ideas in health care in the U.S., as it is in more than 30 countries around the World. Social Prescribing USA work in affiliation with the UK’s Social Prescribing Network, the International Social Prescribing Collaborative, and a community of advocates across the United States.
*Impact & Outcomes | Open Source Wellness
Resources
- Open Source Wellness
- Dr. Markle’s TedX talk on Community as Medicine
- Social Prescribing USA
- Get Involved (Social Prescribing USA)
- Resources (Social Prescribing USA)
- New York Times Article on Social Prescribing
Meet Our Speakers
Dr. Alan Siegel is the Co-founder and Medical Director of Social Prescribing USA, the leading U.S. social prescribing advocacy organization. He is a Family Physician at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and is developing their social prescribing program. For the last 2 decades at Contra Costa Health (CCH), he led an arts in health program for patients and staff and led many projects in social prescribing: a Nature Rx program to bring patients with pediatric obesity and chronic disease to Bay Area regional parks; and he helped start the Health Leads program at CCH to address social determinants of health. As a National Organization for Arts in Health founding board member, he initiated a project to bring the arts to healthcare workers to address burnout. He also provided leadership to the renowned Martinez Family Medicine Residency Program, specializing in ambulatory education and faculty development. Alan also completed a UCSF Champion Provider Fellowship to work on advocacy.
Dr. Elizabeth Markle is a licensed psychologist, speaker, writer, researcher, and Professor of Community Mental Health at California Institute of Integral Studies. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Open Source Wellness, an Oakland-based nonprofit offering experiential behavioral health and wellness via a “Community As Medicine” approach in collaboration with healthcare providers and insurers. Dr. Markle earned her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Northeastern University and her M.A. in Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard University, and her postdoctoral training in Primary Care-Mental Health Integration at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Markle is a thought leader in the field of health and wellness and has been sought-after as a consultant for her unique insights and expertise in clinic-community integration, innovative approaches to mental health, and group facilitation.
Carolina Ayala (Lena) is a health and wellness coach at Open Source Wellness. She first encountered OSW as a participant, prescribed into the OSW “Community As Medicine” program by her PCP at Native American Health Center. After completing the program and serving as a peer leader, she embarked on health and wellness coach training with OSW, and was subsequently hired on as a staff coach. She is a mother, wife, author and crossinguard, and previously worked as a teacher. She holds many titles and positions but what is most important is the healing journey she continues to be on in relation to self, people, food, movement and medicine.
