Well-being on Prescription for better well-being
Individual wellbeing is to a large extent socially determined by the culture and local environment in which someone finds themselves. To improve wellbeing, it is therefore important to recognise and tap into the central role of the local context and community in which someone lives. That is what Welzijn op Recept (a Dutch intervention related to social prescribing) aims to achieve.
Welzijn op Recept is a cross-domain collaboration between healthcare and social work, in which in which general practitioners refer people with psychosocial complaints - that cannot be linked to an identifiable biomedical cause - to a wellbeing coach. The wellbeing coach then works with the patient to find suitable activities and social contacts in the neighbourhood to improve wellbeing. This broad approach to wellbeing shifts the focus from healing and care to the role of social support (see infographic in Dutch).
In practice, it is challenging to firmly connect Welzijn op Recept and its healthcare and welfare professionals with the local community and residents' initiatives. In part, because these initiatives tend to be many and diffuse in nature. More insight into what aspects contribute or hinder wellbeing in the local community, and what initiatives play a part in this, can help to solidify the connections between health and wellbeing professionals and these initiatives, thereby amplifying their benefit through Welzijn op Recept.
Joining forces in the neighborhood
The objective of this project is to improve local cooperation and mutual connection between Welzijn op Recept and residents' initiatives in the neighborhood and thus contribute to a transition towards a social model of wellbeing: an approach for wellbeing in which the interaction between individual well-being and local (resilience) power is recognised and utilised.
Systemic approach
We do this through systemic participatory research. The emphasis is on joint exploration and learning about wellbeing in the neighbourhood between partners who have a stake in it. This approach focuses on understanding the shared context, valuing different perspectives on well-being, jointly formulating goals, and developing appropriate actions.
Research approach
Through in-depth interviews, working visits and working sessions (Living Labs), we jointly build a qualitative local understanding of wellbeing, of what the neighbourhood can do, and needs, to strengthen local wellbeing, and of the operation of Welzijn op Recept. Furthermore, we collaborate with computational scientists to work on agent-based modeling and visualising the interaction between well-being and local factors from a quantitative viewpoint. This provides further input for discussions about starting points for change.