Social prescribing

‘Social prescribing’, also known as ‘community referral’, involves referral by a person’s doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional to local, non-clinical services, such as exercise classes, art therapy, or other community resources. The aim is to address some of the wider social determinants of mental health that you learned about in Week 1.

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montage of three images: art materials; a yoga class; weights.

Such activities can be useful in reducing isolation and may often be combined with CBT or other talking therapies. Watch the video below to learn more about social prescribing.

Download this video clip.Video player: pmh_1_week4_social_prescibing.mp4

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Transcript

NARRATOR

Many things affect your health and wellbeing. GPs tell us that a lot of people visit them feeling isolated, lonely, or stressed out by work, money and housing problems. These are issues that can’t be fixed by doctors and medicine alone. At its most basic, a social prescription offers the kind of help that doesn’t come in a tube or a bottle. The idea behind social prescribing is to help you to have more control over your health care and find ways to manage your needs in a way that suits you.

There are lots of different ways of providing social prescribing services. It often starts with a conversation, perhaps with a link worker, a support broker, or a community navigator. Whatever they are called, they are there to listen to you and put you in touch with whatever it is you might need in order to feel better.

That might mean being introduced to a community group, a new activity or a local club. It could be legal advice, volunteers to help around the house. It might just be information and guidance, a bit of inside knowledge on your situation, and what local resources there are available. It could even be some support in how to create something new.

Studies show that individuals with social prescriptions get better and feel better faster than those treated with medicine alone. And because it works, it’s happening more and more. To find out how it can work for you, talk to your doctor, health professional, or Local Authority today.

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You might consider informing your learner about social prescribing that they might be able to access via their doctor or community support worker, in your own locality or health service. Depending on availability, this could even include free gym membership or free access to creative classes or local support groups that could help promote learners’ positive mental health.

In a learning context, Nair and Otaki (2021) have developed a model for combining such interventions as mindfulness and movement to support learners’ physical, psychological emotional and social needs in an integrated way. Their model is also transferable to other learning environments. You may wish to explore if any of these types of activities are available for learners in your educational setting (see also Activity 4 in the next section).