🌿 About Grooply
The future of healthcare is social.
When providers can prescribe belonging the way they prescribe medicine, everything changes — for every patient, every practice, every health system.
🧠 The science of social prescribing
Healthcare that writes community as medicine
Social prescribing connects people to non-clinical, community-based activities as part of a broader care plan. It usually begins when a physician, nurse, therapist, or other health professional identifies a non-medical need and makes a formal referral. A trained link worker or care team may then help the person find the right local support.
42% 📉
Drop in doctor appointments among UK patients using social prescribing over 12 months
Source: National Academy for Social Prescribing, 2024
48% 🎨
Reduction in depression symptoms from arts participation
Source: Arts Council England, 2023
20 min 🌿
Cortisol reduction from nature, measurable within 20 minutes of outdoor exposure
Source: University of Michigan, 2019
20+ ✨
WHO-5 wellbeing point improvement after 6–8 social prescribing sessions — 2× the clinically significant threshold
Source: UCL / NASP, Nature Health, 2026
1.3M 🩺
Social prescribing referrals made annually by NHS GPs — around 200 per practice
Source: Lancet, 2025
29% 🧠
Lower risk of dementia among older adults who regularly engage in arts and cultural activities
Source: WHO, 2023
📝 How social prescribing works
The referral is part of a clinical pathway; the prescribed activities themselves are non-clinical and focus on holistic wellbeing, social connection, and lifestyle support.
🧠Whole-person care
A health professional identifies emotional, social, or practical needs alongside the person's clinical care.
🌬️Stress relief
A formal referral connects the person to appropriate community support, sometimes through the electronic health record.
🤝Local support networks
A trained link worker or extended care team can bridge the clinical system and community providers.
⚖️Equitable access
Art, walking, gardening, and cultural activities support connection and wellbeing without replacing medical treatment.
🎨 What can be prescribed?
Social prescriptions point to non-medical activities that can strengthen social connection, reduce stress, and support holistic wellbeing. Grooply organizes these into art, nature and culture experiences designed as a series of doses over 6–12 weeks.
🎨Art
Pottery, painting, dance, improv, collage, creative writing, music
🌳Nature
Guided walks, gardening, birdwatching, hiking, outdoor yoga, kayaking
🏛️Culture
Museum tours, concerts, festivals, book clubs, film screenings, history walks
💃Movement
Dance, tai chi, yoga, drum circles, and gentle exercise groups
🧠 NeuroArts
Why art, nature and culture change the brain
NeuroArts is the science of how creative, natural and cultural experiences influence the nervous system. Arts participation activates reward and emotion regulation circuits. Nature lowers cortisol and restores attention. Cultural connection reinforces identity and belonging. Together, they form the biological basis for social prescribing.
🏛️ Grooply's NeuroArts-based health pillars
🎨Creative expression
Art, music, dance and craft
🤝Social connection
Shared experience and belonging
🌿Nature engagement
Outdoor exposure and restoration
🏛️Cultural sustainability
Identity, heritage and place
✨ Core Benefits
😌 Ease Mental Health Challenges
- Boosts self-esteem and confidence through group participation.
- Lowers symptoms of depression, anxiety, and chronic stress.
- Builds a sense of purpose and routine via community engagement or creative arts.
🤝 Reduce Loneliness and Isolation
- Connects isolated people to walking clubs, art classes, or gardening groups.
- Fosters meaningful social ties and community belonging.
- Supports individuals navigating major life transitions or grief.
📉 Relieve Healthcare Systems
- Offers alternatives to medication for non-clinical or resistant issues.
- Decreases frequent visits to general practitioners for social isolation.
- Bridges the gap between traditional clinical care and community support.
The future of care is social, natural, and creative.
Social prescribing connects the clinical care pathway with non-clinical community support. Grooply is the infrastructure that makes those referrals matchable, trackable, and easier to coordinate.