WHO and The Lancet spotlight social prescribing in new Western Pacific series

The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific and The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific have released a new series on social prescribing, highlighting how community-based approaches can improve health and well-being across the Region.

The series brings together technical papers and available evidence on social prescribing models in different Western Pacific settings. It marks an important collaboration between WHO and The Lancet to strengthen the evidence base for integrated, people-centred care rooted in communities.

What is social prescribing?

Social prescribing connects people to non-clinical community services - such as social activities, exercise groups and peer support - to improve their health and well-being by addressing social determinants of health, reducing loneliness, and strengthening social connections for healthy ageing.

Bridging the evidence gap: the Asian context

While social prescribing has expanded rapidly in Europe and North America, evidence from Asian contexts has so far been limited. This series helps close that gap by sharing experiences from countries in the Western Pacific, including practical insights from Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

"This collaboration with The Lancet helps bring regional experience to the global conversation on social prescribing," said Dr Mikiko Kanda, Healthy Ageing unit lead at the WHO in the Western Pacific Region. "It offers countries approaches that reflect local cultures, systems and community strengths, and provides Member States with context-appropriate approaches for healthy ageing."

A pioneer in social prescribing

Since 2020, the WHO Western Pacific Healthy Ageing unit has led work on social prescribing, becoming the first WHO unit to formally introduce it to Member States. WHO has since been instrumental in developing global knowledge products, including the WHO Social Prescribing Toolkit and a dedicated WHO Academy course.

Building on a successful history of collaboration between The Lancet and WHO - including a previous special issue on healthy ageing - this new series features contributions from experts across the Region, including WHO collaborating centres SingHealth Community Hospitals (Singapore) and Kyoto University School of Public Health (Japan).

Supporting countries towards healthy ageing

As populations age and social disconnection grows, interest in social prescribing is increasing across the Region to address social isolation and loneliness, and to integrate health, social and long-term care services.

Countries such as Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia are showing increasing interest in social prescribing, while Australia, the Republic of Korea and Singapore are in the process of introducing this approach.

Social prescribing is also recognized as a promising approach in the first ever report from the WHO Commission on Social Connection. Nevertheless, further evidence is needed to inform policies and programmes that effectively address social isolation and loneliness. WHO therefore calls on Member States and academic partners to generate additional evidence through research and to contribute to the global knowledge base.

WHO remains committed to providing ongoing technical support to ensure these programmes are tailored to the unique cultural and structural needs of each country, ultimately fostering more resilient and age-friendly societies.

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The WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Ageing and Equity, Kyoto University School of Public Health, will host an international conference on social prescribing on 27-28 May 2026. Learn more about the conference.