Social Prescribing Day, an annual celebration of the people, organisations and communities who make social prescribing happen, fell on March 19th this year.
Since 2019, organisations at a national and grass roots level, link workers, medical professionals, academics and students have taken part across the country.
On social media, using the hashtag #SocialPrescribingDay, people share exactly what social prescribing means to those who use it every day – and how they have been helped by it.
Find out more about the day at socialprescribingnetwork.com/sp-day here.
WHAT IS SOCIAL PRESCRIBING?
Many things that affect our health cannot be treated by doctors or medicine alone, like loneliness, isolation or stress due to problems with debt or housing. Social prescribing connects people to non-medical support to address these issues and other unmet needs.
This could involve a Social Prescribing Link Worker or an equivalent role:
- Helping someone who is isolated to join a befriending group, an art class or a community gardening project, based on what matters to them.
- Connecting someone struggling with financial stress to a service that helps with managing debt or claiming benefits.
- Working with someone with high blood pressure to take up a form of exercise that they’re comfortable with.
- Social prescribing involves understanding the complexities of people’s lives and the inequalities they may face.
- It can help change the circumstances that make people unwell, and empower people to manage existing health problems.
- It can help people to connect and to grow in confidence.