The metaverse could be just the tonic for social prescribing
I was recently asked to do a keynote on Social Prescribing in the Metaverse. I was reluctant at first but saw it as a great way to test out more ways that we might interact with the Metaverse in socially beneficial ways. We have already seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, that practitioners have expanded their use of digital technology to meet patients’ needs, like isolation and prolonged social distancing.
Social prescribing is a new approach to enable health professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services, which recognises that people’s wellbeing is determined by a range of social, economic,and environmental factors. Social prescribing can involve a wide range of health care, financial and social services, volunteering, group learning, gardening, befriending, cooking, healthy eating advice, and sports and other activities. This has been most beneficial for those with mental health problems, complex needs, socially isolation, and with multiple long-term conditions.
Some of these aspects were covered when I wrote on Health in the Metaverse, such as avatar consultations, collaboration, education and gamification to encourage wellness. On reflection, where the greatest benefits will come, will be from the emergence of community-owned economies and social tokens in the Metaverse.
2020 was the year social tokens entered explosive growth as a category, as documented by Forefront, in 2021, the total market cap of key Social tokens surpassed $303m, a ~500% growth from 2020. I agree with Raoul Paul from RealVision who predicts that social, or community, tokens are going to be the next substantial development in the crypto market.
These bring about a new immersive economy with bi-directional relationships between creators and consumers, with benefits on both sides. Mostly the use cases to date have been for celebrities and fans. The idea is that the holders of that token will get benefits from the issuer, such as exclusive content, access to group chats, or digital merchandise.
Anyone can create a community token, and provide benefits to the community, such as discounted tickets, merchandise, ability to get access to NFTs, ability to have meet and greets, and the ability to chat with particular people. In this way to an ecosystem where everybody can connect, and bond and everybody feels close to the centre of the community.
For a social prescribing community, social tokens could be created by primary care professionals and service providers. Tokens could be both those with a clear financial aspect like provision of services as well as other tokens more like loyalty points or club memberships.
Social tokens have more value than traditional points because they are usable beyond the platform and they can be used for decision making and resource allocation. Social tokens are both the entry to a community and a financial instrument tracking the perceived value of that community.
In practice, community tokens often involve a communication platform like Discord, Slack, or Telegram, and entry is via a token or NFT. One of the first projects that pioneered token-gated access is the Karma Community, gated by its community token.
“Karma is a project with a stance on helping those suffering and in need. Our aim and objectives are to help those in need to get back on their feet and open new chapters of success to their lives”.
Community tokens can also be an effective tool to set incentives for desired behaviour within a community. One example is Donuts, a community token for an Ethereum-related subreddit. Members are rewarded with Donut tokens according to how active they are in the community.
Donuts are tokens that represent community contribution and engagement at the /r/ethtrader subreddit. Friends with benefits, another token-gated community, uses their $FWB token to incentivize community members to participate in the Discord, attend calls, and host events. Digital goods present another opportunity, like POAP certifying attendance at a specific event.
As with all services for vulnerable people, in constructing a social prescribing metaverse, consideration needs to be given to both benefits and challenges.
In writing “Going Telemental: Contact and Intimacy in Digital Mental Health”
A forerunner to the more expanded service offerings in the Metaverse, Sean Respass summarises some of the benefits and challenges of Telemental Health. Benefits include improved access to care, less travel requirement, reduced costs, better schedule flexibility, greater environmental familiarity, and higher rates of patient engagement.
On the challenges side, he highlights enhanced privacy concerns, digital literacy and technological instability. He also highlights that digital medical interventions are unable to effectively replicate the same degree of intimacy of physical care. Insurance coverage of Metaverse services may be a barrier.
There remains a long road ahead, but if the social prescribing community can follow developments in social and community tokens and the metaverse, they can get ahead of the promise of Web 3. How the metaverse might alleviate social isolation, mental health and other social problems, is certainly an intriguing source of exploration, if not the tonic for social prescribing.