28.03.16
What is the national social prescribing network?
Source: NHE Mar/Apr 16
Following the recent launch of the National Social Prescribing Network, Dr Marie Polley, the organisation’s co-chair, writes for NHE about its aims, objectives and how health professionals and commissioners can get involved.
Until recently, social prescribing has been a phrase on the lips of many, yet no-one knew what level of social prescribing was actually happening across the UK.
The aim of the National Social Prescribing Network, which was borne out of a Wellcome Trust-funded research project, is to bring together the social prescribing stakeholders who have been making innovations in their local area, and creating a way of enabling strategic collaboration and sharing of best practice.
It is reported that up to 20% of patients see a GP for a problem that requires a social solution, which is a burden that social prescribing seeks to relieve.
How does social prescribing work?
Over the past few months, the research the National Social Prescribing Network has been undertaking is showing that there is no single approach that sums up a social prescribing service.
On the face of it, this could make it very hard to scale up such innovation. But preliminary data from a survey that the National Social Prescribing Network carried out has revealed that the intentions of the stakeholders in existing social prescribing services are the same – irrespective of the models being used.
That is to enable healthcare practitioners to refer patients to a link worker, who can co-design an appropriate social prescription to support a patient to improve their health and wellbeing. The social prescription is most often provided by the voluntary and community sector.
Innovators have reported key ingredients that they feel makes a social prescribing service a success. It is these that enable a social prescribing service to be moulded to the differing needs of patients within the local environment. This approach also allows local assets to be harnessed, and new services in the community to be commissioned where the need arises.
The lifeblood that runs through a social prescribing service is the communication, feedback and the relationships formed. So often we rightly hear the complaints about ‘silo mentality’ and lack of communication across departments in the health and social care sector. Social prescribing services deliberately communicate across these divides, by having a point of contact to refer to: the link worker.
The link workers have many names in reality and they talk with healthcare professionals, they talk with patients in a language they understand, they listen, empathise, activate and motivate. Crucially, the link worker knows the resources and groups that are in the local community, and so can link a patient to the right type of support.
Imagine a patient who has been socially isolated, has lost confidence to go to a group on their own, and who may have mental health issues. It is the link worker who can form the relationship with the patient to support them to overcome such barriers.
Looking ahead
Our network is growing at pace and there has been a phenomenal level of interest from policy-makers, healthcare professionals, the voluntary and community sector, researchers, link workers and patients.
We are working as quickly as we can, and are delighted to have the support from NHS England in our endeavours. We are putting together a database to map social prescribing in the UK and to design resources such as toolkits for researchers and commissioners, which can support stakeholders to work strategically and collaboratively as social prescribing becomes the next big social movement to take hold.
Do you want to be part of the National Social Prescribing Network?
We welcome all healthcare professionals to collaborate with the National Social Prescribing Network. For more information download the report or visit our website to receive updates on our activity. We look forward to meeting you at one of our future events.
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