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The Social Prescribing Journey



"I think it is to introduce social activities available in the community to our patients."

"I think our orange shirt colleagues interact with our patients to learn more about their interest in order to engage them in activities during their stay here."

"Social Prescribing is taking care of the social aspects of patient's lives."

"Wellbeing Coordinators find out patients' hobbies and link them up to community service providers so that patients can enjoy their hobbies when they are discharged."
 

In a nutshell
Did you know that Social Prescribing Day falls on 9 March every year? In honour of the occasion, we asked some of our colleagues what they knew about Social Prescribing. Are your answers similar to theirs?

Social Prescribing at SCH aims to improve the well-being of each patient by addressing the social aspects of their health. By identifying their social determinants of health early in their hospital stay, Wellbeing Coordinators can help the patient engage in activities to connect them back to the community and improve their overall health.

A/Prof Lee Kheng Hock, Deputy CEO (Education & Community Partnerships), elaborated, "Patients in community hospitals who have the toughest social determinants of health often face the greatest challenges when they are discharged. As they do not have adequate social support to help them in their daily lives, their condition may deteriorate significantly.

Our Wellbeing Coordinators play an important role in linking patients up with community care providers, local government agencies and social services which offer various social activities and programmes. Patients benefit from the stronger community support and are more equipped to lead a healthier lifestyle, thus improving their overall wellbeing." 

Celebrating our milestones 

2018

​The SCH team saw the potential in the positive emerging evidence on Social Prescribing in the United Kingdom and decided to bring it to SCH.  

Oct 2019

​We conducted internal staff engagement on Social Prescribing and welcomed our 1st batch of Wellbeing Coordinators (WBCs). Together with the WBCs, the social prescribing pilot programme kicked off in BVCH. 

Jun 2020

​COVID-19. The team expanded the programme to include digital literacy lessons, also known as e-Social Prescribing, and introduced it to BVCH and SKCH. 

Nov 2020

​Seeing positive results, we presented SCH Social Prescribing efforts to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and was recognised internationally as an innovator in the field of Social Prescribing. 

Mar 2021

SCH won the Best International Social Prescribing Scheme Award at the Social Prescribing Network Awards and published a report “Addressing Social Determinants of Health in a Pandemic – Providing e-Social Prescribing to our Elderly”. 

Apr 2021

We collaborated with WHO to create a Social Prescribing course on OpenWHO and designed a Toolkit on how to implement Social Prescribing. 

Aug 2021

Duke-NUS medical students begin their attachment with SCH Wellbeing Coordinators to learn more about the Social Prescribing Programme in SCH and its effect on patient outcome. 

Jan 2022

We launched the Social Prescribing Programme in OCH! 

Nov 2022

SCH hosted the 1st Asia Pacific Social Prescribing Conference and invited overseas and local experts to share about Social Prescribing with close to 1,000 attendees. We also organised a Social Prescribing Workshop for Family Physicians. 

Feb 2023

Team OCEAN was awarded the Best Team Award (Patient Experience Improvement Category) in the SingHealth Quality Service Awards 2023.