What does good social prescribing look like? A South Eastern NSW case study (2/3)
In 2020, COORDINARE engaged health and social services consultancy Beacon Strategies in partnership with facilitators Carrie Lumby from Troubled Dog and Dr Belinda Thewes to lead a co-design process to develop a model of social prescribing tailored for the South Eastern NSW region.
The program model to be designed was aimed at building social connection and self-management capacity in people living with or at risk of chronic conditions in South Eastern NSW.
With the continued focus on social prescribing as a ‘high-value, low-cost’ way of improving the responsiveness of the health system, we thought it would be worthwhile to unpack some of what we learnt in that project to share with other PHNs commissioning social prescribing service models or linkage program providers. This blog is the second of three in a South Eastern NSW case study series: what does ‘good’ social prescribing look like?
If you missed it, check out part one of this blog series “what is social prescribing?” here.
What does ‘good’ social prescribing look like?
In considering what ‘good’ looks like in the context of social prescribing, we should start with why it’s not already happening. It seems logical to focus on a person’s health and social needs and from the work we’ve done with consumers and health professionals, there is shared recognition of the importance and need for something like social prescribing.
So let’s start with the barriers…
When we asked both health consumers to share their past experiences of being connected with non-clinical services or social supports, we heard common themes centred around not knowing where to go, difficulties and frustrations in accessing support, competing priorities and demands (practical and emotional), burden on carers and loved ones, affordability and the need for trust, rapport and understanding with their treating professional.
Health professionals told us of their experiences characterised by feeling frustrated, anxious, pressured and lacking the capacity, and wishing there was more they could offer their patients.
When we layered some of these experiences on top of each other, we were able to identify some core needs that a social prescribing model needs to be able to meet, including:
knowledge and understanding of what could benefit and how to access it
compassionate and open-minded approach
challenging assumptions and eliminating discrimination
celebrating strengths, skills and wisdom
involving natural supports
people to support the ‘journey’
confidence to take the first step
connection, interaction and belonging with others
communication between parts of the system
networks of like-minded professionals/providers
time and space to know people and work together
financial inclusion
How to address these needs
While some of these needs may change across regions and be experienced differently by various groups within each community, many of them are universal and enduring. How these needs can be met is more likely to look different for different places and people.
Through our work, we identified several core components of a social prescribing model that could respond in different ways to the needs above:
Referral and connection — with a primary focus on the role of general practitioners
Credible and localised information — about what social supports and non-clinical services are available
Coordination and navigation — a role or function that supports health consumers to find, access and properly connect with supports matched to their needs
Social support programs and non-clinical services — the mix of opportunities here can be vast, but we heard examples such as creative pursuits, physical activity, socialising, hobbies, peer support, health education, vocational and volunteering pursuits and mindfulness.
Community engagement and communication — to build awareness of the benefits, knowledge of how someone can connect to support, and understand what’s available to them.
These findings align closely with the ‘Essential elements of the social prescribing pathway’ identified through a national roundtable in 2019 hosted by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia and The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).
To conclude this blog series, head over to part 3: “How can local health systems improve the uptake of social prescribing?”.
Looking for more help to designing programs and services for impact? Check out how we can help here. Or, keep reading about the work we do with Primary Health Networks.