“In this combination of diligent science reporting, moving patient success stories, and surprising self-discovery, THE CONNECTION CURE (Simon & Schuster) shows us how to think about health outside of healthcare, and discover lasting and life-changing medicine in our own communities.
Traditionally, when we get sick, healthcare professionals ask, “What’s the matter with you?” But around the world, teams of doctors, nurses, therapists, and social workers are starting 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 art classes, gardening groups, and volunteering gigs.
From photography courses in the Netherlands to tea-making groups in South Korea, journalist Julia Hotz tours the globe to investigate the revolutionary potential of social prescribing through its five most common categories: nature, movement, art, service, and belonging. We see their prescriptive power personified through a range of healing journeys—a mother prescribed an art workshop for PTSD, a young man prescribed a fishing club for ADHD, a woman prescribed a sea swimming course for depression, a grandmother prescribed farm work for dementia. Their success stories bring a long-known theory to life: if we can change our environment, we can change our health.
As healthcare’s de facto cycle of “diagnose-treat-repeat” reaches a breaking point, Hotz uncovers why social prescribing has spread to more than thirty countries—and continues to grow every day. By reconnecting to what matters to us, we can take our health into our own hands and embark on the path to lasting wellness.”