Social Prescriptions and Protopia
The Royal Ontario Museum reports on social prescriptions in action
About Social PrescriptionsThis encounter with the notion of "social prescriptions" in a message from the ROM made me wonder about "digital social prescriptions." What would they look like?
Social prescriptions are a means for healthcare, community, and social service professionals to refer people to non-clinical and non-medical services that, along with existing treatments, can be a therapeutic tool for improving health and well-being.
In Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care funded a one-year pilot project with The Alliance for Healthier Communities in September 2018. This program offers social prescriptions in 11 community health centres to address the growing problems of loneliness and social isolation, particularly among older adults. The ROM will be collaborating with the Alliance throughout the year to better understand the impact of museums on health and well-being. Research resulting from this collaboration will help inform the ROM Social Prescription Program as it evolves.
I'm slowly making my way through Kevin Kelly's The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. This material is way better than his previous work. I remember being put off on his hive mind riffs. This seems more measured and asks the reader to be attentive to the bits of the future that are already here and he clears away any tension between utopia and dystopia by coining the term "protopia."
[N]either dystopia nor utopia is our destination. Rather, technology is take us to protopia. More accurately, we have already arrived in protopia.Sounds as if he is inspired by Eastern philosophy. Perfect prescription to balance out unchecked teleological inclinations.
Protopia is a state of becoming rather than a destination. It is a process. In the protopian mode, things are better today than they were yesterday, although only a little better. It is incremental improvement or mild progress. The "pro" in protopian stems from the notions of process and progress. The subtle progress is not dramatic, not exciting. It is easy to miss because a protopia generates almost as many new problems as new benefits.
And so for day 2337
07.05.2013
