SocialRx, a social prescribing platform, has teamed up with Urban Health Plan, a federally qualified health center in New York.
The goal of the partnership is to expand access to social prescribing services. Providers will be able to connect patients to non-clinical, community-based experiences that support mental health and reduce social isolation.
“Urban Health Plan has been at the forefront of social prescribing in New York City since 2023, believing that creativity, belonging and cultural connection are as essential to well-being as any clinical intervention,” Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez, president and CEO of the organization, said in a press release. “Partnering with SocialRx allows us to bring that vision to scale, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing whole-person care for the patients and communities we serve.”
Specifically, the partnership will benefit patients ages 18 to 24 with obesity and depression, as well as patients ages 55 to 70 with hypertension and depression. The idea is to look at the relationship between depression and chronic illness and how access to social activities may improve depression and, by extension, chronic illness.
The way SocialRx works is this: Once a patient receives a “prescription” for 12 doses of arts and culture, a care navigator engages with them and builds a personalized well-being plan. “One of the things I love that social prescribing asks is not ‘what’s wrong with you,’ but ‘what matters to you,’” Chris Appleton, CEO of SocialRx (formerly known as Art Pharmacy), told Fierce Healthcare. A recommendation engine then matches them to the highest-efficacy engagements, and they get to choose from a set of options.
After their engagement, SocialRx follows up to understand how it went and shares data, including patient-reported outcome questionnaire results, back with the prescribing clinic. This approach allows patients to change their minds or try different engagements if they wish. “Because we have this closed loop aspect of it, and we’re really following along, you can make adjustments in real time of what’s useful to the patient,” Appleton said. Toward the end of their prescription, SocialRx helps co-design an offramp to ensure the patient knows what resources are in their community so they can keep engaging with them.
SocialRx, founded in 2022, works with prescribing partners that include colleges and universities, health plans, health systems and federally qualified health centers. The company entered the New York market last year and is focused on expanding its reach there, per Appleton. Meanwhile, about 2,000 community partners nationally, such as libraries, theaters and arts centers are on its platform.
Speaking about the broad availability of arts and culture programming in a place like New York City, Appleton explained that some people need extra help connecting with resources. One powerful aspect of having a provider involved is “a permission structure that comes when you get that prescription from your healthcare provider,” Appleton explained.
The personalization aspect is also key, helping address decision fatigue and ensuring that the recommended events are the right fit for a particular person. For instance, if someone has alcohol use disorder, they shouldn’t be recommended an event that has drinking at the center of it. If someone is light-sensitive, they shouldn’t go to a play with a lot of special effects.
Additionally, knowing that a care navigator follows up after an engagement makes some patients more likely to go. Not everybody needs the accountability, Appleton noted, but those who do often struggle with mental health and have the highest social needs.
“There is a cultural moment right now that both consumers and healthcare organizations want to invest in human connection, want to invest in prevention and wellness,” Appleton said. He added that tech and social media are “major contributors” to the mental health and loneliness epidemics, and that AI should never replace connections to real people. “Relationships save lives, community saves lives,” Appleton said.
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