International Social Prescribing Champions: Thursday 14 March 5-630 pm GMT
To celebrate Social Prescribing Day, the International Social Prescribing Alliance launches their champion scheme report Seven Years On! at the Greengross A4D International Arts for Brain Health Changemakers SOCIAL PRESCRIBING CHAMPIONS Conversation.
Co-chairs Dr Bogdan Chiva Giurca Clinical Lead and Global Director of the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), and Hamaad Khan, Global Development Officer of NASP, share insights with International Social Prescribing Champions from Australia, Canada, Singapore, the UK and United States of America.
Medical students represent an untapped asset that can build the foundation of a brighter future. The Social Prescribing Champion scheme enables medical students – the generation of today, and the future doctors of tomorrow – to become involved arts prescription programmes, to promote social prescribing within their region and to interact with people wishing to preserve their wellbeing and brain health through cultural and creative activity – to understand their needs and existing skills first hand and how best to access these
Who for?
If you are a medical, neuroscience or social care student, or you teach, research, study or work in the arts for health sector, or are keen for deeper involvement in social prescribing, international pathways that enable people to access inspirational cultural and creative opportunities to preserve their brain health, to acquire early understanding as medical, neuroscience and social care students, learn how social prescribing to arts from the onset of dementia symptoms can enable people to live their best lives for longer together in communities around the world.
A G E N D A
H O S T: Veronica Franklin Gould, President, Arts 4 Dementia
C H A I R : Dr Bogdan Chiva Giurca, Clinical Lead and Global Director of the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) launches the Seven Years On report.
Co-CHAIR: Hamaad Khan, Global Development Officer of NASP, ‘The Social Prescribing Student Champion Scheme.
UK P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N chaired by Hamaad:
- Kirstie Goodchild, SP Student Champion Evidence Lead
- Naabil Khan, SP Student Champion Global Lead
- Alexandra Tan, Student Champion Social Media Lead
G L O B A L P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N chaired by Hamaad:
- USA Rachel Chen and Esha Ahmad, Harvard Undergraduate Initiative for Social Prescribing.
- CANADA Caitlin Muhl and Le-tien Duong, Co-Leads, Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective.
- AUSTRALIA Social Prescribing Student Champion
- SINGAPORE Social Prescribing Student Champion
Q&A with Bogdan Chiva Giurca and Hamaad Khan
Veronica thanks and close at 6.30 pm GMT
S P E A K E R B I O G R A P H I E S
DR BOGDAN CHIVA GIURCA is a medical doctor, leading the Global Social Prescribing Alliance, which was launched in 2019 in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and the World Health Innovation Summit. The Alliance currently consists of international leaders from over 32 countries worldwide. Bogdan has played a key role in the development of Social Prescribing in England since 2015 through establishing and chairing the NHS England Social Prescribing Champion Scheme (2015-2023) consisting of over 20,000 doctors, medical and healthcare related trainees championing the subject in their own institution. Bogdan lectures at Imperial College London (leading the Social Prescribing module), is an Honorary Lecturer at University College London, a Collaborator for the Harvard Global Health Institute, and is named among the ‘Top 100 Most Influential People in Health’ in the UK (Health Service Journal Top 100, 2022).
HAMAAD KHAN a medical student and Global Development Officer at NASP, is dedicated to advancing global health systems with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. He holds a Neuroscience degree from King’s College London and an MSc in Global Health and Development from University College London. Hamaad’s research focuses on international social prescribing models. He collaborated with the WHO to author the first global report on social prescribing, highlighting healthcare policy advancements in 24 countries. His goal is to integrate this knowledge into clinical practice, driving broader systemic healthcare changes. Hamaad co-leads the Global Social Prescribing Student Council, collaborating with student leaders worldwide to enhance social prescribing education in health curricula. In 2022, his advocacy against overprescribing in medical education earned him the youngest-ever Hillary International Award for Health & Care Leadership.
KIRSTIE GOODCHILD, Social prescribing Student Champion Evidence Lead, is studying for MSc in Occupational Health at the University of East Anglia. [bio t/c]
NAABIL KHAN, Social Prescribing Champion Global Lead, is a third-year medical student at the University of Exeter in Devon. She raises awareness of the benefits, components, and understanding of Social Prescription within the NHS. As a writer for DYYV, a student-led news site, she is involved with Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic representation in medical education. Naabil is the General Secretary of Muslim Women in Surgery, where she advocates for inclusion within the surgical field and works to diversify education and awareness surrounding Muslim women in healthcare. She is the President of Amnesty International Exeter, where she raises awareness about human rights violations and discusses social issues with committee and society members.She also co-hosts the podcast Very Junior Doctors
ALEXANDRA TAN, Social Prescribing Student Champion, Social Media Lead, is a fifth-year medical student at Imperial College London. [Bio t/c]
RACHEL CHEN, Founder and President of the Initiative for Social Prescribing at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and NASP Visiting Collaborator. As Research Assistant at the Center for Geriatric Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, Rachel is building the infrastructure and partnerships for a new social prescribing pilot and designing an original research protocol to evaluate the programme’s impact on geriatric patients. She was awarded Joey Hanzich Memorial Fellowship to support work on this project.
ESHA AHMAD MCS PPL PAF is President of the Harvard Global Education Movement, a Wellness Educator and Secretary of the Pakistani Student Association. I am a proud resident of Winthrop concentrating in Neuroscience (Mind, Brain, and Behaviour) with a secondary in Global Health & Health Policy and a Spanish citation.Born in Pakistan, Esha spent much of her childhood in Italy and is passionate about diversity and empowering students from all walks of life and challenging current medical systems to be more equitable and empathy-driven.
CAITLIN MUHL BSc MPH, co-lead of the Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective, is a PhD candidate in Health Quality at Queen’s University. Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Her doctoral work is focussed on social prescribing. Caitlin also supports the implementation and evaluation of social prescribing in her community. Her interest in health quality and public health led her to discover her passion for social prescribing.
LE-TIEN DUONG MPH, co-lead of the Canadian Social Prescribing Student Collective, is a PhD candidate in Health Policy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her interest in social prescribing began several years ago, when she was exploring ways to connect health and social systems. Since then, Le-Tien has become involved in social prescribing through her work with United Way Halton and Hamilton and her dissertation on health systems transformations through community-led social movements.
VERONICA FRANKLIN GOULD, President, founded the charity Arts 4 Dementia in 2011 to develop weekly learning and participation programmes at cultural venues, to re-energise and inspire people above early symptoms of dementia, with website to signpost arts activities for dementia nationwide. She worked with Dementia UK to devise training and insight for arts facilitators, and with universities to provide best-practice conferences and reports. Her inaugural A4D Reawakening the Mind programme (2012-13) won the London 2012 Inspire Mark and Positive Breakthrough in Mental Health Dementia Award 2013 and she was 2014 Sunday Times Changemaker finalist. On publication of Music Reawakening (2015), she was appointed A4D president. Her regional guide Reawakening Integrated: Arts & Heritage (2017) mapping arts opportunities for dementia aligns arts within NHS England’s Well Pathway for Dementia. Her social prescribing campaign (2019-23) encourages professionals to empower people to access wide-ranging arts from the outset of symptoms, to preserve their Brain Health, with practice disseminated in A.R.T.S. for Brain Health: Social Prescribing as Peri-Diagnostic Practice for Dementia (2021). Her Global Social Prescribing: The A4D Arts for Brain Health Debates involved speakers and delegates from 40 countries around the world. Veronica is Vice-President of Decibels on the advisory boards of the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowships and The British Society for Lifestyle Medicine and Trustee of The Amber Trust.
