Social prescribing
Social prescribing
Social prescribing is a service that helps connect people in their communities to local, non-clinical groups (e.g. community and voluntary sector activities) and services. It aims to improve mental health and physical wellbeing, and reduce the negative health impacts of loneliness, poor health, and disability. It is sometimes referred to as community referral.
In England the NHS Long Term Plan stated that over 1,000 trained social prescribing link workers (within Primary Care Networks) would be in place by the end of 2020/21, then rising further with the aim that over 900,000 people can be referred to social prescribing schemes by 2024.
A recent systematic review that explored the involvement of community pharmacy in social prescribing suggested that pharmacists are mostly involved as referrers (i.e. identifying patients that could potentially benefit from social prescribing). Structured Medication Reviews, Discharge Medicines Service and the New Medicine Service provide important opportunities for pharmacy professionals across the primary care pathway to identify and refer people.
Examples of social prescribing interventions pharmacy teams participated in include community gardening projects; projects to address inactivity such as exercise classes; running mental health support sessions; combating loneliness and increasing the quality of life for patients with diabetes through community education projects.
In June 2022, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, in collaboration with the National Association of Link Workers, released a position statement on Pharmacists and Social Prescribing to raise awareness and encourage appropriate referrals. The recommendations made included the need to increase awareness of social prescribing and access to training on social prescribing for pharmacy teams.
In Northern Ireland, there are pockets of good practice, one example being the IMPACTAgewell – Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership (meaap.co.uk). Other activity includes the establishment of a Social Prescribing Development Board to map current provision and deliver a more sustainable approach.
Social prescribing in Scotland is predominantly locally commissioned (e.g. weight management) but national guidance on the use of social prescribing for mental health has been developed by NHS Health Scotland in partnership with the Self-Management and Social Prescribing National Advisory Group.
In Wales, social prescribing is an area of increasing activity where community pharmacies, although not formally involved, play an important role.
Conclusion
In the UK, pharmacy professionals are recognised as important contributors in the delivery of public health interventions. The changing health landscape and government policy to increase the involvement of pharmacy teams will require pharmacy professionals to contribute further to developing and delivering public health interventions, especially those that help tackle health inequalities.