Social Prescribing and Primary Health Care in Viet Nam: Where Could It Fit, and What Should Remain Distinct?

Social Prescribing and Primary Health Care in Viet Nam: Where Could It Fit, and What Should Remain Distinct?

Social prescribing and primary health care seem, at first glance, to belong naturally together. Both are concerned with people rather than diseases alone. Both recognize that health is shaped by social circumstances, daily life and the communities in which people live. Both can involve prevention, participation, community resources and connections across sectors.

But alignment is not the same as equivalence.

Social prescribing is not primary health care, and primary health care should not be reduced to social prescribing. Understanding where they can connect, while keeping their roles and responsibilities clear, will be particularly important if social prescribing begins to develop more formally in Viet Nam.

The timing is relevant. Viet Nam is strengthening its grassroots health system and expanding the role of commune health stations in prevention, primary care, chronic disease management, community health and continuity of care. The World Health Organization's 2025 review of the commune health system identified an opportunity to strengthen comprehensive, coordinated and person-centered primary health care.[1] In September 2026, WHO also reported continued expansion of community-level management of hypertension and diabetes, bringing screening, treatment and follow-up closer to where people live.[6]

Social prescribing could contribute to this direction, but the important word is contribute. Its role should be to strengthen appropriate connections between people, services and community resources, not to blur the boundaries between healthcare, social work, social assistance, public health and ordinary community life.

Key Points

• Primary health care is much broader than primary care, and much broader than social prescribing.

• Social prescribing could provide a practical bridge between identified non-clinical needs and appropriate community resources.

• Commune health stations are one plausible entry point in Viet Nam, but social prescribing should not be assumed to belong only to doctors or health facilities.

• Existing functions in social work, social assistance and community health create areas of overlap that should be coordinated rather than duplicated.

• Social prescribing should remain distinct from medical examination and treatment, clinical referral, public health programs, professional mental health care and formal social work or social assistance when those services are required.

• Community organizations should be partners, not unpaid extensions of the healthcare system.

• Viet Nam would benefit more from locally adapted learning and evaluation than from prematurely adopting a single imported model.

Primary health care is broader than primary care

The distinction between primary health care and primary care matters. The World Health Organization describes primary health care as a whole-of-society approach with three interconnected components: integrated health services with primary care and essential public health functions at their core, multisectoral action on the broader determinants of health, and empowered people and communities.[2] Primary care is an important part of that wider approach, but it is not the whole of primary health care.

This matters because social prescribing is sometimes presented as though it is what makes healthcare pay attention to social determinants of health. A strong primary health care approach already recognizes that health depends on much more than diagnosis and treatment.

The potential contribution of social prescribing is more specific. It can create a practical pathway through which a person whose health or well-being is affected by social, practical or community circumstances can be connected with appropriate non-clinical resources.

WHO's Western Pacific toolkit describes social prescribing as a means of connecting patients with non-clinical services in the community to improve health and well-being.[3] The WHO framing is primarily a healthcare-to-community connection, although implementation can be adapted to local circumstances. More recent international evidence also describes wider initiation and coordination settings across healthcare, social care and community systems.[9]

This distinction is useful for Viet Nam. It means there is no need to assume from the outset that social prescribing must reproduce a particular foreign workforce structure or organizational model. At the same time, if Viet Nam eventually develops pathways that begin outside healthcare, those broader entry routes should be clearly defined as part of the locally adapted model rather than assumed to be identical to the original WHO framing.

Where could social prescribing fit in Viet Nam?

One natural point of connection is where a health or social care conversation identifies a need that clinical treatment alone will not resolve.

A person living with diabetes may receive appropriate medical management but remain socially isolated and physically inactive. An older adult may have stable chronic conditions but struggle after bereavement or retirement. A caregiver may be exhausted and disconnected from support. Someone may repeatedly use healthcare while financial stress, loneliness or another practical problem continues to affect their well-being.

In situations like these, social prescribing would not replace clinical care. It could provide an additional pathway for understanding what matters to the person and exploring whether an appropriate community resource could help, such as a physical activity group, social activity, caregiver network, cultural program, volunteering opportunity or practical support service.

Commune health stations are one plausible entry point because they sit close to people's everyday environments and are increasingly expected to support comprehensive and continuous care. WHO's 2025 review of Viet Nam's commune health system emphasizes stronger person-centered primary health care and closer attention to people's wider circumstances alongside illness and comorbidity.[1]

The current Vietnamese regulatory framework makes this especially interesting. Under Circular No. 43/2025/TT-BYT, effective from 1 January 2026 and subsequently amended by Circular No. 53/2025/TT-BYT, commune health stations have functions extending well beyond medical examination and treatment. Among other areas, the Circular assigns responsibilities in community health, care of older people and people with disabilities, population activities and social assistance, or “bảo trợ xã hội.”

The social assistance provisions are particularly relevant. Circular 43 includes social work services involving reception, screening and assessment of needs; support for specified populations; counseling and psychological support; connection or transfer to relevant facilities and organizations; case management; community follow-up; and coordination with organizations, individuals and community social-work collaborators.[4]

These functions sit close to some activities that might appear within a social prescribing pathway. That does not mean existing social work should simply be renamed social prescribing, nor does it justify creating a parallel pathway that duplicates work already assigned to the health station.

The more useful question is where social prescribing could add something that is currently missing, such as more systematic knowledge of community resources, a structured person-centered linking process, stronger relationships with community organizations or evaluation of whether connections actually work.

The link may be a function before it becomes a profession

Many international social prescribing models use a dedicated link worker. There are advantages to this because meaningful conversations about people's priorities take time, and community navigation requires knowledge of local organizations, eligibility, capacity and accessibility.

But a dedicated new profession is not the only possible model. WHO's toolkit allows implementation to be adapted to context, and international practice includes models involving existing healthcare or social care staff, community-based workers, teams and partner organizations.[3,9]

For Viet Nam, it may therefore be more useful initially to define the linking function before defining a new occupational title.

A pilot or early implementation project could first clarify what the function requires. This might include recognizing when a non-clinical issue is relevant, having a conversation about what matters to the person, understanding available community resources, supporting the first connection where necessary, following up appropriately, recognizing when the person's needs exceed the role, protecting personal information and maintaining relationships with community partners.

Different settings might then test who is best placed to perform different parts of this work. In one setting, existing social work staff may already be well positioned. Elsewhere, an appropriately trained nurse, village health worker, community collaborator or partner organization might contribute within clearly defined responsibilities. More complex pathways may require several people rather than one designated role.

The important issue is not what the person is called. It is whether there is clear responsibility, appropriate competence, enough time, suitable supervision and a realistic relationship with the community resources involved.

Existing community collaboration is not automatically social prescribing

Viet Nam already has substantial experience of healthcare services working with community actors. That experience can inform social prescribing, but it should not automatically be relabeled as social prescribing.

The expansion of hypertension and diabetes management at commune level provides a good example. In September 2026, WHO described how commune health stations can identify people who have missed follow-up appointments, contact them directly and, when necessary, work with community outreach teams to encourage them to return. These teams may involve local residents, youth organizations, community organizations and the Red Cross.[6]

This is valuable community-supported primary health care, but it is not, by itself, social prescribing. The purpose is continuity of clinical disease management and re-engagement with healthcare.

A social prescribing pathway has a different central function. It connects a person with non-clinical community support when social, practical or community circumstances are relevant to health and well-being.

The same distinction applies to vaccination outreach, health education, disease screening, medication-adherence activities, public health campaigns and ordinary referrals between healthcare facilities. These may involve communities and may share principles such as prevention or person-centeredness, but they do not become social prescribing simply because they occur outside a hospital.

Keeping this distinction matters. If every health-related community activity is described as social prescribing, the term becomes so broad that it loses practical meaning.

What should remain distinct?

The clearest boundary is between clinical responsibility and non-clinical community support. Viet Nam's Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 and Decree No. 96/2023/ND-CP have been effective since 1 January 2024 and govern medical examination and treatment, practitioners, healthcare facilities and related professional activities.[7,8]

Social prescribing does not create a new legal authority to diagnose disease, prescribe or modify medication, provide medical treatment or perform other regulated professional activities. In Viet Nam, it should therefore be understood as a pathway for appropriate non-clinical connection, not as a new category of licensed medical practice.

A walking group should not be expected to monitor someone's diabetes. An arts organization should not be asked to treat depression. A volunteer should not be placed in a position where they are expected to determine whether new symptoms require clinical intervention. A peer-support group should not gradually become an unregulated substitute for professional treatment.

At the same time, people living with chronic disease, disability or mental health conditions should not be unnecessarily excluded from ordinary community life. The relevant distinction is not between “healthy people” and “patients.” It is between supporting someone to participate as a member of the community and assuming professional healthcare responsibilities.

The relationship with social work and social assistance requires similar clarity, although the overlap is greater. Social workers may assess psychosocial needs, provide support, undertake case management, coordinate services and connect people with other organizations. Some of these activities closely resemble parts of a social prescribing pathway, and Viet Nam's current regulations already assign several such responsibilities to commune health stations.[4]

But social work and social assistance have wider purposes and responsibilities. Someone experiencing violence, abuse, trafficking, severe family crisis, exploitation or significant safety and protection concerns may require formal social work, social assistance or other specialized intervention. A community activity should not be used as a softer alternative when professional or statutory support is actually required.

The reverse is equally important. A person who would simply like to become more active, meet other people, volunteer or participate in a cultural activity does not necessarily need formal case management. Social prescribing and social work can collaborate without becoming the same service.

Social prescribing should also remain distinct from population-level public health action. Primary health care includes multisectoral action on the wider determinants of health, but an individual referral pathway cannot solve structural problems merely by directing people elsewhere. Financial advice may help someone navigate a difficult situation, but it does not eliminate poverty. A walking group cannot compensate for an unsafe built environment. A referral cannot create public transport where none exists, and a community activity cannot substitute for adequate housing policy.

This distinction protects social prescribing from being asked to solve problems beyond its reach.

Community resources should remain communities

Primary health care may be an entry point into social prescribing, but that does not make community organizations part of the healthcare system.

A community organization may have existed for years before any health service began connecting people with it. Its value may come precisely from not feeling medical. People may attend because they want friendship, activity, creativity, meaning, practical support or a sense of belonging, and that character should be protected.

Healthcare organizations need to understand the resources to which they connect people, but they should not impose clinical documentation, reporting or governance requirements that are disproportionate to the activity. A neighborhood reading group does not need to become a quasi-clinic because some participants arrived through social prescribing.

Community organizations also need to be able to say that a referral is inappropriate, that an activity is full or that their capacity has changed. If healthcare generates increasing demand without considering the resources required to absorb that demand, social prescribing can unintentionally weaken the community infrastructure on which it depends.

The 2026 global scoping review of 115 peer-reviewed empirical studies reinforces this point. It found that implementation depended not only on referral pathways but also on relational continuity, community capacity and local conditions. Socioeconomic disadvantage, unstable funding, limited community-sector capacity and workforce pressures were among the recurring barriers.[9]

Partnership therefore matters more than simply increasing referral volume.

Information sharing also needs a clear boundary

Connecting healthcare and community organizations raises a practical question: what information actually needs to follow the person?

Usually, less than a healthcare organization might initially assume.

A community organization does not automatically need a person's diagnosis, medical history or clinical record simply because the connection originated in healthcare. In many situations, a name, contact information, the person's interest in participating and information genuinely necessary for safe and appropriate access may be sufficient.

Viet Nam's Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 356/2025/ND-CP have both been in effect since 1 January 2026.[10,11] The framework contains specific requirements relevant to the processing of personal data, including personal data relating to health, and organizations need to determine the applicable requirements for the data they collect, use and share.

A social prescribing pathway should therefore be designed around necessity and clear purpose, not convenience. Organizations need to determine what information is genuinely needed, why it is needed, what consent or other applicable legal condition or exception applies, who can access it and how it will be protected.

The same principle applies in the opposite direction. Healthcare does not automatically need a detailed report about everything a person does in the community. Feedback should be proportionate to the purpose of the pathway and consistent with the person's preferences and applicable data protection requirements.

A Vietnamese model should be adapted to local systems and communities

Much international discussion of social prescribing has been shaped by the United Kingdom, particularly its link-worker model. That experience is valuable, but there is no reason to assume that one country's workforce or referral structure should define social prescribing everywhere.

The Western Pacific Region already demonstrates considerable diversity. A 2026 scoping review identified 42 peer-reviewed studies and 13 grey-literature sources, covering models that varied substantially in structure, funding, population reach and delivery. Only one of the 42 peer-reviewed studies was from Viet Nam. The authors concluded that implementation across the region requires a structured but flexible approach adapted to local systems and community strengths.[12]

The limited Vietnamese evidence base means there is currently no strong evidence for declaring one national social prescribing model to be the correct one.

A more useful starting question is: what connection between health, social support and community life is missing in this particular setting, and what is the simplest safe way to build it?

In some locations, a dedicated connector may eventually make sense. In others, existing social work capacity, health personnel or community organizations may already perform part of the function. Some pathways may begin at commune health stations, while others could potentially emerge from hospitals, other primary care settings or community-based services, provided that the model, responsibilities and boundaries are clearly defined.

The model should follow the need and context, not the terminology.

Where could Viet Nam reasonably start?

Given the current evidence, carefully designed small-scale implementation may be more useful than attempting rapid standardization.

One possible starting point would be a limited number of settings where primary health care services are functioning, community partners are willing to participate and enough appropriate local resources exist to make meaningful connections. Rather than trying to create a pathway for everyone immediately, early work could focus on situations where social or practical circumstances are clearly affecting health and well-being and where a realistic non-clinical response is available.

The pathway would need to clarify who can introduce someone to social prescribing, who performs the linking function, how the person's needs and preferences are explored, how community resources are assessed, what information is shared, what happens when needs exceed the pathway and how follow-up occurs.

Just as importantly, early implementation should test the community side of the model. Are organizations willing to receive people? Do they have capacity? Are the activities accessible and affordable? Are community partners being asked to do work outside their role? Does additional demand create costs or pressure on staff and volunteers? What happens when the resource is full or stops operating?

Evaluation should also go beyond counting referrals. More useful questions include whether people actually made contact, whether they participated, whether the support reflected what mattered to them, what barriers arose, how community organizations experienced the pathway and whether any unintended inequities or harms emerged.

Social prescribing could also generate useful information about the wider system. If people repeatedly need affordable physical activity, caregiver support, social connection or practical help that cannot be found locally, this is not merely a referral problem. It may reveal a gap in community capacity that health, social and community partners need to understand.

Key Takeaway

Social prescribing fits comfortably with the principles of primary health care because both recognize that health is shaped by more than disease and treatment. Viet Nam's current strengthening of grassroots health services, the expansion of chronic disease management closer to communities and the wider functions now assigned to commune health stations create real opportunities to explore whether more structured connections with community resources could add value.

But social prescribing should not become another name for primary health care, community outreach, social work, social assistance or referral between healthcare facilities. Nor should it turn ordinary community organizations into informal healthcare providers.

Its most useful role may be narrower and more practical: helping people whose health and well-being are affected by social or practical circumstances make meaningful connections with appropriate non-clinical resources in their communities.

For Viet Nam, the priority at this stage should be learning rather than premature standardization. The evidence remains limited, community resources vary substantially between locations, and several existing functions already sit close to parts of a social prescribing pathway.

The central question is therefore not simply whether social prescribing can be integrated into primary health care. A more useful question for Viet Nam is:

Where could social prescribing add something that primary health care, social work, social assistance and communities are not already providing, without duplicating or weakening what already exists?

Answering that question well may be more important than deciding what to call the model.

References

1. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. Primary health care in Viet Nam: a review of the commune health system. Manila: World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific; 2025. ISBN 978-92-9062-115-7.

2. World Health Organization. Primary health care. Geneva: World Health Organization. Accessed 25 September 2026.

3. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. A toolkit on how to implement social prescribing. Manila: World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific; 2022. ISBN 978-92-9061-976-5.

4. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 43/2025/TT-BYT guiding the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of commune, ward and special-zone health stations. 15 November 2025. Effective 1 January 2026.

5. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 53/2025/TT-BYT amending and supplementing Circular No. 43/2025/TT-BYT. 31 December 2025. Effective 1 January 2026.

6. World Health Organization Viet Nam. Strengthened grassroots health care brings NCD services to 10 million in Viet Nam. 8 September 2026.

7. National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15. 9 January 2023. Effective 1 January 2024.

8. Government of Viet Nam. Decree No. 96/2023/ND-CP detailing certain provisions of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment. 30 December 2023. Effective 1 January 2024.

9. Kisa A, Kisa S. Models, implementation, and reported outcomes of social prescribing interventions: a scoping review. Frontiers in Public Health. 2026;14:1871347. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1871347.

10. National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15. 26 June 2025. Effective 1 January 2026.

11. Government of Viet Nam. Decree No. 356/2025/ND-CP detailing certain provisions and measures for implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection. 31 December 2025. Effective 1 January 2026.

12. Lwin KS, Wong MSJ, Tan MH, et al. Organization and implementation of social prescribing in the Western Pacific Region: a scoping review. The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific. 2026;67:101714. doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2025.101714.

Article Information

Published: 25 September 2026
Last reviewed: 25 September 2026
Publisher: Social Prescribing Vietnam

Disclaimer

This article is provided for educational and informational purposes. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical guidance, legal advice or official policy. Social prescribing is an evolving field, and evidence specific to Viet Nam remains limited. References to possible models or implementation approaches are intended to support discussion, research and evaluation rather than prescribe a national model. Social prescribing should not be used as a substitute for medical examination and treatment, professional mental health care, social work, social assistance or other regulated services when these are required. Organizations developing social prescribing pathways should determine the applicable Vietnamese legal, professional, organizational, safety and personal data protection requirements for their specific activities before implementation.