The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific and The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific have launched a new series on social prescribing, highlighting how community-based, non-clinical approaches can improve health and well-being across the region. The series brings together technical papers and evidence on different social prescribing models in Western Pacific countries, marking an important collaboration aimed at strengthening the evidence base for integrated, people-centred care rooted in local communities.
Social prescribing refers to connecting people with community services and activities such as exercise groups, social clubs, peer support, and other non-clinical resources that can improve health by addressing social determinants, reducing loneliness, and strengthening social connections. The approach is seen as especially relevant for healthy ageing, as it helps tackle social isolation while linking health, social, and long-term care services in a more holistic way.
The article explains that while social prescribing has grown rapidly in Europe and North America, there has been limited evidence from Asian settings. This new series helps address that gap by presenting regional experiences and practical lessons from countries in the Western Pacific, including examples from Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. WHO says this collaboration brings locally relevant experiences into the global conversation and offers countries approaches that are better aligned with their own cultures, systems, and community strengths.
WHO’s Western Pacific Healthy Ageing unit has played a leading role in advancing social prescribing since 2020, becoming the first WHO unit to formally introduce the concept to Member States. Since then, it has helped develop global knowledge resources such as the WHO Social Prescribing Toolkit and a dedicated WHO Academy course. The new series also builds on previous collaboration between WHO and The Lancet, including earlier work on healthy ageing, and features contributions from experts across the region, including WHO collaborating centres in Singapore and Japan.
As populations continue to age and social disconnection becomes a growing concern, interest in social prescribing is increasing across the Western Pacific. Countries such as Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia are showing growing interest, while Australia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore are in the process of introducing the approach. WHO notes that social prescribing is also recognized as a promising strategy in the first report of the WHO Commission on Social Connection, though more research is still needed to guide effective policy and programme design.
The article concludes by emphasizing WHO’s call for Member States and academic partners to generate more evidence through research and contribute to the global knowledge base on social prescribing. WHO says it will continue to provide technical support to help countries adapt these programmes to their cultural and structural contexts, with the broader goal of building more resilient, age-friendly, and socially connected societies.
