From What Is The Matter With You To What Matters To You: Social Prescribing & Brain Health with Kate (Webb) Berk, BS

What if the most important question in healthcare is not what is the matter with you — but what matters to you?

In this episode of the Let's Talk Brain Health! Podcast, Dr. Krystal Culler sits down with Kate (Webb) Berk — community organizer, arts in health consultant, wellness coach, and founder of the Ohio Social Prescribing Collaborative — to explore one of the most exciting and most underrecognized frontiers in brain health: social prescribing.

Social prescribing connects people to what makes them feel alive — community, creativity, movement, music, and the arts. And the science behind it is more compelling than most people realize. Kate's path into this work began in fourth grade when a school outreach program showed her how dance could strengthen the connection between body, mind, and community. She spent a decade as a Principal Dancer with Ohio Contemporary Ballet before dedicating her career to the intersection of arts, health, and community wellbeing.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

🧠 What social prescribing is — and what it actually looks and feels like for a patient

🧠 Why flipping the question from "What is the matter with you?" to "What matters to you?" changes everything

🧠 How social prescribing compares abroad versus in the US — and what needs to change here

🧠 What arts prescribing looks like — the activities, conditions, and populations that benefit most

🧠 What the neuroscience tells us about creativity, movement, and community as brain health tools

🧠 How social prescribing addresses loneliness, physical inactivity, and depression — three of the Lancet Commission's 14 modifiable dementia risk factors — simultaneously

🧠 What the Ohio Social Prescribing Collaborative is building — and how to get involved

🧠 What you can do today — even without a formal program — to bring social prescribing into your own brain health routine

Key Takeaways

✔ Social prescribing is a healthcare intervention with a growing international evidence base — not a soft concept

✔ Health is the product of our environments — connection, creativity, and belonging can be genuinely curative

✔ The arts are a brain health tool with measurable cognitive, emotional, and social benefits across the lifespan

✔ You can write your own social prescription today — one small, intentional act of community or creativity at a time

Also listen: 🎧 The Arts as the Fifth Pillar of Health: Brain Health, Longevity, and Dementia Prevention with Dr. Daisy Fancourt, Ph.D. — a perfect companion episode on the latest research that supports the arts in health

Earn FREE CEs

This podcast qualifies for continuing education credit for the following healthcare professionals: Physicians (AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™), Nurses (ANCC), Pharmacists (ACPE), Physician Associates (AAPA), Dentists (ADA CERP), Dietitians (CDR), Social Workers (ASWB), Psychologists (APA), Athletic Trainers (BOC), and Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE).

Each eligible episode offers 0.5 hours of FREE CE credit. Not seeing your profession listed? You will receive a Certificate of Participation to submit to your licensing board for possible credit approval. Join the Learn at Pinnacle app to earn FREE CE credit for listening to this episode — available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Support the Podcast

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• Follow or subscribe to the Let's Talk Brain Health! Podcast

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• Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or fellow brain health advocate

Thank you for investing your time and energy into your brain health. A special thank you to Kate (Webb) Berk for reminding us that what matters to us is not separate from our health — it is at the very heart of it. 🎨

Resources

• Learn more about the Ohio Social Prescribing Collaborative

• Connect with Kate on LinkedIn or email her at kate@ohiosocialprescribingcollaborative.com

• Explore more about social prescribing with Social Prescribing USA