The connection cure the prescriptive power of movement, nature, art, service, and belonging

"In this combination of diligent science reporting, moving patient success stories, and surprising self-discovery, journalist Julia Hotz helps us discover lasting and life-changing medicine in our own communities. Traditionally, when we get sick, health care professionals ask, "What's the matter wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hotz, Julia (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2024.
Edition:First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
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Summary:"In this combination of diligent science reporting, moving patient success stories, and surprising self-discovery, journalist Julia Hotz helps us discover lasting and life-changing medicine in our own communities. Traditionally, when we get sick, health care professionals ask, "What's the matter with you?" But around the world, teams of doctors, nurses, therapists, and social workers have started to flip the script, asking "What matters to you?" Instead of solely pharmaceutical prescriptions, they offer 'social prescriptions' -- referrals to community activities and resources, like photography classes, gardening groups, and volunteering gigs. The results speak for themselves. Science shows that social prescribing is effective for treating symptoms of the modern world's most common ailments -- depression, ADHD, addiction, trauma, anxiety, chronic pain, dementia, diabetes, and loneliness. As health care's de facto cycle of "diagnose-treat-repeat" reaches a breaking point, social prescribing has also proven to reduce patient wait times, lower hospitalization rates, save money, and reverse health worker burnout. And as a general sense of unwellness plagues more of us, social prescriptions can help us feel healthier than we've felt in years. As Hotz tours the globe to investigate the spread of social prescribing to over thirty countries, she meets people personifying its revolutionary potential: an aspiring novelist whose art workshop helps her cope with trauma symptoms and rediscover her joy; a policy researcher whose swimming course helps her taper off antidepressants and feel excited to wake up in the morning; an army vet whose phone conversations help him form his only true friendship; and dozens more. The success stories she finds bring a long-known theory to life: if we can change our environment, we can change our health. By reconnecting to what matters to us, we can all start to feel better"--
Physical Description:viii, 324 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-324).
ISBN:9781668030349
1668030349
9781668030332
1668030330
Author Notes:Julia Hotz is a solutions-focused journalist with stories in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, The Boston Globe, Time, and more. For her insights on social prescribing, she has been invited to advise health and community organizations, teach in medical schools, and deliver talks at TEDx, university symposiums, and international conferences. She proudly serves on the board of Walk with a Doc, and as an advisor to Social Prescribing USA.