The impact of a social prescribing service on patients in primary care: a mixed methods evaluation

Dawn Carnes,Gopalakrishnan Netuveli,Ratna Sohanpal,Caroline Frostick,Sally Hull,Marcello Bertotti,Rohini Mathur,Jin Tong,Patrick Hutt

doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2778-y

Abstract

BackgroundSocial prescribing is targeted at isolated and lonely patients. Practitioners and patients jointly develop bespoke well-being plans to promote social integration and or social reactivation. Our aim was to investigate: whether a social prescribing service could be implemented in a general practice (GP) setting and to evaluate its effect on well-being and primary care resource use.MethodsWe used a mixed method evaluation approach using patient surveys with matched control groups and a qualitative interview study. The study was conducted in a mixed socio-economic, multi-ethnic, inner city London borough with socially isolated patients who frequently visited their GP. The intervention was implemented by ‘social prescribing coordinators’. Outcomes of interest were psychological and social well-being and health care resource use.ResultsAt 8 months follow-up there were no differences between patients referred to social prescribing and the controls for general health, depression, anxiety and ‘positive and active engagement in life’. Social prescribing patients had high GP consultation rates, which fell in the year following referral. The qualitative study indicated that most patients had a positive experience with social prescribing but the service was not utilised to its full extent.ConclusionChanges in general health and well-being following referral were very limited and comprehensive implementation was difficult to optimise. Although GP consultation rates fell, these may have reflected regression to the mean rather than changes related to the intervention. Whether social prescribing can contribute to the health of a nation for social and psychological wellbeing is still to be determined.

Highlights

Social prescribing is targeted at isolated and lonely patients
Social prescribing services showed that the rigour of evaluations was limited and that none of the evaluations had an adequate control group [6]
The setting The social prescribing service was piloted in the London Borough of City and Hackney which is characterised by an extreme range of socio-economic deprivation and affluence and a considerable ethnic mix [9]

Summary

Introduction

Social prescribing is targeted at isolated and lonely patients. Practitioners and patients jointly develop bespoke well-being plans to promote social integration and or social reactivation. In the last few years there has been an emergence of interventions focusing on the social component of care, such as social prescribing, art on prescription, exercise/physical activity on. The emergence of these interventions are in part due to the aging population, increases in chronic conditions, levels of social isolation and the growing burden of providing health care [5]. There is no standard definition of social prescribing but we describe it as: a non-medical referral, or linking service, to help people identify their social needs and develop ‘well-being’ action plans to promote, establish or re-establish integration and support in their communities, with the aim of improving personal wellbeing

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Conclusion