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750 words max
For this assessment, students will complete a personal reflection on social prescribing and how they can
implement this into their lives to achieve a healthy study/work-life balance. Students will be asked to
define social prescribing and to reflect on how they could implement positive lifestyle, psychological, and
behavioural changes based on the material presented in Module 04, using their own choices and
experiences or if preferred using the fictional student vignettes presented within the course modules.
You may choose to consider the following prompts when writing your reflection (which can apply to
yourself or to fictional student characters):
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What changes can you make to your current lifestyle to help you achieve a more healthy
study/work-life balance?
Are there any barriers that might have prevented you from engaging in extracurriculars,
recreation, cultural and/or social activities and given what you have learned in the course are
there any strategies or new ways of thinking that might help you to overcome these?
Did you learn any new information or techniques in this course that made you stop and question
your current routines?
How do you think GLAM (gardens/nature, art (libraries and art galleries) and culture (museums))
participation might help you in supporting your well-being?
Have you learned anything in this course that helps you better understand your past or present
behaviours and could be implemented to support a more healthy well-rounded lifestyle and in so
doing improve and maintain your well-being and effectiveness as a student?
Social prescribing: sometimes known as community referral, is a means of enabling health
professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services
o When health professionals refer patients to support in the community, in order to improve
their health and wellbeing
o My understanding and definition of social prescribing = instead of clinical aid for
someone’s mental health or well-being, utilizing members of your community/your
community to aid your mental health and well being
How to implement positive lifestyle, psychological, and behavioural changes based on material in
module 4
o Using own choices experiences
o Before
 Felt lonely
 Reduced confidence as I felt like I couldn’t’ talk to anyone or get to know anyone
 Had trouble sleeping
 Felt like I didn’t belong and wanting to go home to where I felt comfortable and
knew everything
 Lack of motivation to study (unhealthy study life balance)
o After
 Improved mental health, felt happier
 Able to talk to more people and started meeting new people
 Learned more about different people and interesting facts
o learned about their hometowns, interesting facts about each of
them
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o Whenever I am placed in a new environment and I need to meet new people, I tend to
have trouble as I find myself to be introverted in new environments. When I first arrived at
Queens, I did not really feel like I connected with people I met and tended to isolate
myself by studying alone, eating alone, and calling my family and friends back home. I
felt lonely and isolated as everything and everyone I knew was back home and I was in a
foreign environment. I had not found a community or a sense of connectedness with the
people at Queens. This led to many sleepless nights, always feeling tired, staying in my
room alone and not interacting with anyone. This took a toll on my mental health as I
contemplated dropping out and going back home or transferring schools. However, over
a few weeks, I slowly started to come out of my shell and people opened up their arms to
let me into their groups. This led me to meet wonderful people on my dorm floor and a
group of friends in my program. Being able to talk to these people allowed me to feel a
sense of community and feel connectedness. We bond over how stressful school is,
sports, books, social media, etc. This has boosted my mental health and I feel happier
and less lonely now. I know that there are people here at Queens that I can rely on and
talk to whenever I am feeling down and I feel like I have a community now.
Humans are very social creatures. We learn about all the negative effects isolation has on one’s
mental and physical health in module 4 (Cunningham & Duffy, 2022). To combat loneliness and
isolation, many people are socially prescribed and personally, I have found this beneficial to my own life.
Social prescribing is sometimes known as community referral and it is when health professionals refer
patients to support in their community, to improve their health and wellbeing, treating them in a holistic
manner (Raypole, 2020). While I have not been provided a social prescription, I have learned and
experienced first-hand the impact of community and connectedness.
When I first arrived at Queens, I did not feel any sense of connectedness as I left everything and
everyone I knew to come study in Kingston. I had built healthy relationships and wonderful communities
back home where I felt a sense of belonging and connectedness. These relationships had taken sometime
to build as I tend to be introverted in new environments. Therefore being thrown into a completely new
environment at Queens, on top of not finding anyone I felt a genuine connection with, left me feeling
lonely and isolated. The first few weeks at Queens, I would spend mostly by myself, whether it was
studying, eating, or going for walks. I would also visit home any chance I got to feel a sense of belonging
and connectedness, but this did not aid my loneliness for long. I was isolated and alone due to my lack of
community and sense of belonging (Cunningham & Duffy, 2022). The isolation and loneliness slowly
started to show its effects and it took a toll on my mental health as well. I started experiencing sleepless
nights and the urge to drop out and go home due to the lack of connectedness. Talking to people was a
struggle as I had no confidence leading to the feeling that I could not talk to anyone (Cunningham &
Duffy, 2022). Being unable to talk to anyone led to a lack of motivation to study due to the fact that I was
scared to ask my professors or peers for help or feedback. Seeing the effects of the loneliness and
isolation on my health and study-life balance forced me to find a sense of belonging and community at
Queens.
My mental health and study-life balance drastically improved when I forced myself to seek
connections to build. I set a goal for myself make a new friend every week. Slowly, I started meeting new
people and have now found friends on my dorm floor and in my program. I have seen drastic
improvements to my connectedness, and mental health, as well as my study-life balance. My mental
health has drastically improved as I find myself happier, more willing to leave my room and meet up with
people. My social connectedness has also improved as I find the confidence to talk to more people, even
if they are strangers. I find myself to have a healthier study-life as I find the motivation to study, ask my
peers and professors questions, and the confidence and urge to study with my friends in my program. The
relationships and community I have built at Queens has made me feel understood and connected to others.
With the changes I have made to my sense of community, I have experienced benefits to my
study-life balance. While I am still working on getting my balance right, I have already seen better
engagement and focus in my courses, and lectures. I find myself able to concentrate and be engaging,
allowing me to remember information from lectures as well as small details in my conversations with
friends (Cunningham & Duffy, 2022). Slowly, I am implementing different tips to continue to improve
my study-life balance. Some of these tips include setting achievable goals for myself to strive towards
every single day, creating a clear and detailed schedule to have a structured and efficient day, and most
importantly, look after yourself. I am excited to see how these changes I make will impact my lifestyle
and continue to improve my life.
References
Duffy, A., Cunningham, S. (2022). Module 4- Study Life Balance, Recreation, and Well-being. Queen's
University.
Raypole, C. (2020, June 16). Social Prescribing: Definition, examples, and more. Healthline. Retrieved
November 11, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/social-prescribing