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Title
“The Power of Social Connection”
Abstract
Is having a “beer with mates” better for your health than drinking alone? Is being married good for you? Are we all getting lonelier? Will doctors of the future offer appointments in groups? Should the NHS prescribe social connection? What does AI and social media use mean for human relationships?
Dr Fallows is a GP and Lifestyle Medicine expert who will explain the power of social connection in health. She will reveal some surprising facts about how our relationships shape our health more than we might imagine. She’s seen over 500 patients in group clinics and delved into the science behind why social connection is more important than we think and often the missing link in some illnesses. As a fellow of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine she’s written courses, edited a textbook and taught clinicians of all backgrounds the science and practice of Lifestyle Medicine which emphasizes the role of social connection as one of the core pillars of healthy living.
Bio
Dr Fallows is an obesity and lifestyle medicine expert working as an NHS GP where she has led group consultations to support remission of chronic diseases.
She is passionate about driving healthcare change and bringing medicine back to the root causes of ill health in the consulting room; to focus on real people’s lives and what matters to them. She is medical director of Liva's "NHS Paths to Remission Programme" which supports people to achieve medication free remission of Type-2 diabetes through weight loss and lifestyle changes. She is a Fellow of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (www.bslm.org.uk) where she was Vice-President and Trustee and set up their Learning Academy, writing the first foundation course. She teaches Lifestyle Medicine at Oxford University and has edited one of the first textbooks of Lifestyle Medicine. As a thought-leader she has opinion pieces published in both the Lancet and BMJ on obesity.
Abstract
Addiction is, in part, a psychosocial process shaped strongly by social identity. In this talk, Professor Dan Frings will examine how social identities influence the addiction journey—from initiation and active use through to cessation and recovery. Drawing on frameworks such as the Social Identity Model of Cessation Maintenance (SIMCM) and the Social Identity Model of Recovery (SIMOR), we will explore how identity shapes the way people interpret and respond to their experiences of addiction. In addition to offering identity‑based insights into addictive behaviours, the talk will consider what the recovery process reveals about how social identities operate more broadly, particularly when identities become incompatible or in conflict. Finally, we will discuss practical implications for those supporting or engaging in recovery journeys.
Bio
Dan Frings is Professor of Social Psychology at London South Bank University, where he also serves as Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Health and Life Sciences. Dan’s research focusses primarily on social identities, in particular how they interact with health and wellbeing. His work on social and identity and addiction explores how different identities work at explicit and implicit levels of cognition, and how the interplay of identities impacts how we both perceive the world and enact behaviours. He has applied similar lenses in the realms of mental health, spirituality and higher education. Dan also has a track record of randomised controlled trials and service evaluations in diverse fields, from smoking cessation interventions to AI in cardiac diagnostics in NHS settings, and is a practicing psychotherapist.
