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Abstract
Social prescribing, also known as “community referral”, is a means of referring individuals living in the community to existing local non-clinical health, welfare, and social support services. International evidence demonstrates that social prescribing improves biopsychosocial quality of life, and burden on health services. Australia’s first social prescribing pilot program for individuals with mental illness (mood and psychotic spectrum disorders) was implemented in Sydney in 2016/2017; this study evaluates that program. Participants included 13 adults who were assessed at baseline and six-month follow-up. Outcomes included self-perceived quality of life, welfare needs, health status, loneliness, social participation, and economic participation. Results indicate significant improvements in quality of life and health status. This pilot program demonstrates that social prescribing may improve participant outcomes. It fits well within Australian health policy and funding models which focus on bolstering community care, and may be scalable, particularly in geographically isolated communities.
Highlights
Mental illness impacts individuals and the wider community and places a considerable financial burden on the health system (AIHW 2016)
Social prescribing for mental illness may have a role to play in the Australian contact as, in Australia, mental illness is experienced by approximately 45% of people aged 16–85 years during their lifetime, and 20% of the population experience mental illness each year (ABS 2008)
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate whether the pilot program improved Quality of Life (QoL), and social and economic participation
Summary
Mental illness impacts individuals and the wider community and places a considerable financial burden on the health system (AIHW 2016). Mental illness is affected by biological, psychological, and social factors, and treatments targeting a range of these factors, including the wider determinants of health, are more likely to be effective (WHO 2005). Social prescribing programs address these biopsychosocial factors via care coordination and linkage where individuals with mental illness are referred to local community-based social care services and structured social activities (Knapp et al 2012). These services can be public, private, or volunteer services, and address a broad range of needs across biopsychosocial domains including physical health (medication management, disease-specific groups, diet, exercise), psychological health (support groups, counselling), welfare (food, housing, employment), and social support (group activities, befriending services). Mental illness accounts for 12% of the total burden of disease and 23.6% of the non-fatal burden of disease (AIHW 2016)
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