Skip to content
Donate
World Health Innovation Summit

← All news

A Global Movement for Wellbeing: GSPA 2025 Highlights

27 July 2025

🌍 A Global Movement for Wellbeing: Reflections from the 2025 Global Social Prescribing Alliance Summit

By Gareth Presch, CEO, Global Social Prescribing Alliance Date: 27 July 2025

On 25th July, we welcomed the world to the 2025 Global Social Prescribing Alliance (GSPA) Summit — a truly global moment with participation from 77 countries, 276 organisations, and hundreds of clinicians, innovators, policymakers, and community leaders. It was a powerful demonstration of what happens when we come together across borders, sectors, and disciplines to rethink health not just as the absence of illness, but as the foundation for thriving lives and communities.

This year’s online Summit reflected the momentum we’ve built since our founding in 2020. What began with a simple vision that “healthcare should be a vehicle for living well” has evolved into a global movement with deep roots and bold ambitions.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you for being part of the 2025 Global Social Prescribing Alliance (GSPA) Summit. Your insights, passion, and commitment were truly inspiring and made the event a remarkable success, connecting leaders, clinicians, innovators, and community advocates from 77 countries!

Countries represented at the 2025 GSPA Summit: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

🔑 From Vision to Action: A Global Movement

In my opening address, I spoke about how social prescribing is no longer an idea — it’s a reality shaping healthcare in over 30 countries. We’ve come a long way from our launch in Bologna, Italy, thanks to passionate partners and communities on every continent.

This year, we celebrated strategic collaborations that are scaling our impact:

🏆[ Recognising Global Impact

One of the Summit’s proudest moments was launching the Global Social Prescribing Impact Awards, celebrating the innovators, researchers, community connectors, and students who are driving real-world change. Nominations are open until 4 December 2025, and I encourage you to help us spotlight those making a difference.

📊 Making the Case: Health, Equity & Economic Value

Across the Summit, a core message emerged: Social prescribing is not just good for health — it’s good economics. As Professor Dennis Ostwald reminded us in his keynote, illness-related unemployment costs the UK economy £100 billion per year. Prevention, powered by social prescribing, offers up to £4 return for every £1 invested.

This model helps tackle urgent challenges — from chronic disease and mental health to loneliness and climate stress. It’s not a luxury or an add-on. It’s essential infrastructure for resilient, equitable, and sustainable health systems.

🧭 Key Themes & Recommendations from the Summit Panels

Here are just a few highlights from the Summit’s rich discussions:

Access & Equity

  • Co-design solutions with underserved communities.
  • Address cultural and digital barriers.
  • Fund grassroots innovation and collect inclusive data.

**Building Networks **

  • Forge cross-sector partnerships (health, education, civil society).
  • Empower local “anchor” organisations.
  • Use outcome-based funding and impact metrics like trust and wellbeing.

Real-World Impact

  • Community-led models are delivering outcomes that matter.
  • Quantitative data + storytelling = policy change.
  • Invest in community dashboards and scale grassroots successes.

Technology’s Role

  • Technology should enable empathy, not replace it.
  • Ensure ethical design, privacy, and accessibility.
  • Use AI to personalise support — but design it with the people it serves.

Clinical Integration

  • Train and support clinicians.
  • Embed social prescribing into clinical workflows and reimbursement.
  • Record outcomes in electronic health records (EHRs).

🌐 A Global Call to Action

As we look ahead, the Global Social Prescribing Alliance is calling for:

💬 Final Reflections

I closed the Summit by asking a simple question: What action can you take today to advance social prescribing?

Whether you’re a policymaker, a clinician, a student, or a community leader — your role matters. We need your ideas, your energy, and your voice.

Let’s move from fragmented care to connected communities. From what’s the matter with people to what matters to them. From reactive systems to proactive, people-powered wellbeing.

We’ve built the foundations. Now let’s build the future — together.

📌 Stay Involved

  • 📥 Watch the Summit: GSPA Summit 2026
  • ✉️ Join the global declaration: Coming soon to health leaders and policymakers
  • 🤝 Support local implementation of social prescribing pathways Thank you to every speaker, contributor, and community leader who continues to turn vision into action.

Let’s keep going.

Gareth