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Social prescribing

Guest Editors

Kate Mulligan, PhD, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada
Candice Oster, BA (Hons), PhD, Flinders University, Caring Futures Institute, Australia

BMC Primary Care has published this Collection on Social prescribing. As a patient-centered approach, social prescribing has gained popularity as a means of connecting individuals to non-clinical services in their communities to improve health and well-being. This Collection explores the implementation and impact of social prescribing interventions, emphasizing collaboration between healthcare providers, community organizations, and social services. By addressing health disparities and promoting patient-centered care, this Collection brings together cutting-edge research on social prescribing’s potential to enhance patient care and improve health outcomes.


New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Kate Mulligan, PhD, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada

Dr Kate Mulligan is an Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and is the founding Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Her research focuses on the role of the community sector and community-scale leadership, formal and informal, in the production of health and health systems. Dr Mulligan is a globally recognized expert in social prescribing, a founding member of the global social prescribing collaborative, and the winner of the 2024 Lori Chow Award for excellence in health promotion.

Candice Oster, BA (Hons), PhD, Flinders University, Caring Futures Institute, Australia

Dr Candice Oster has a psychology and behavioral health background and has undertaken research across the spectrum of behavioral health, from theories and models of health behavior and individual-level interventions through to community, organizational, and policy/structural contexts, including social determinants of health. Her current research explores social prescribing and the application of digital health technology in health coaching. Dr Oster has extensive experience as a qualitative and mixed methods researcher, including participatory research approaches such as photovoice and co-design and the use of implementation science to understand implementation processes and outcomes.

About the Collection

BMC Primary Care has published this Collection on Social prescribing. Social prescribing has emerged as a promising approach in primary care, involving the referral of patients to non-clinical services and activities in the community to address their health and well-being needs. This Collection explores the implementation and impact of social prescribing interventions, the role of community resources in promoting health outcomes, and the integration of social prescribing within primary care settings. We invited submissions that investigate the effectiveness of social prescribing in addressing health disparities, promoting health equity, and enhancing patient-centered care.

Suggested topics for the Collection included:

  • Impact of social prescribing on health outcomes
  • Integration of social prescribing in primary care
  • Community resources and social prescribing interventions
  • Addressing health disparities through social prescribing


Image credit: © Sabrina / stock.adobe.com

  1. Social prescribing allows clinicians to refer people to resources or activities in their community to improve their abilities and health. Implementation of social prescribing is growing. However, there is not ...

    Authors: Marina Pola-Garcia, Natalia Enríquez Martín, Alberto Turón Lanuza, Fátima Méndez-López, Ángel Gasch-Gallén, María Luz Lou Alcaine and Carmén Belén Benedé Azagra
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:169
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Comparative analysis of literature on social prescribing implementation suggests that strategies for implementing social prescribing for people with (complex) multiple-problems may differ significantly from th...

    Authors: C. Bos, S. Vader, N. van Vooren, K. Jerković-Ćosić and B. Keij
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:165
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Primary healthcare providers are increasingly challenged in supporting patients with psychosocial needs. Arts on Prescription (AoP) has been shown to improve primary healthcare patients’ mental health wellbein...

    Authors: Anita Jensen, Anders Halling, Mirnabi Pirouzifard and Martin Lindström
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:155
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. There is growing evidence for the role of culture in supporting health and wellbeing, including as part of social prescribing provision. This study set out to explore the existing cultural provision and mechan...

    Authors: Anna Dadswell and Hilary Bungay
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:149
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Addressing increasing rates of childhood obesity is a global priority. High numbers of children and young people are living with obesity and experience significant physical and mental health impacts. Social pr...

    Authors: Megan Garside, Catherine Homer, Christopher Dayson, Lorna Dowrick, Katie Pickering and Neil Wright
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:55
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Time spent in green space such as parks and forests can have positive effects on physical and mental health. Green Health Partnerships were set up in Scotland to promote use of green space for health improveme...

    Authors: Neil Howlett, Imogen Freethy, Sian Harding, Adam P. Wagner, Lisa Miners, Honey Anne-Greco, Laura Lamming, Nigel Lloyd and Katherine E. Brown
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:50
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Group well-child care (GWCC) is a novel group-based alternative for pediatric primary care visits that may allow for adaptations that better tailor to the needs of underserved populations. This qualitative stu...

    Authors: Ishaan T. Shah, Nina D. Ham, Hassan Lubega, Christopher L. Boswell, Esther Kim Liu and Renée D. Boynton-Jarrett
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2025 26:22
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Health-related social problems are common in primary care. Different care models integrating medical and non-medical services in primary care have been tested and established nationally and internationally, su...

    Authors: Wolfram J. Herrmann and Hendrik Napierala
    Citation: BMC Primary Care 2024 25:441
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select Social prescribing from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.