Social Prescribing Day 2024
Today, 14 March, marks National Social Prescribing Day; an annual celebration to highlight the important impact Social Prescribing makes within our communities.
During 2022-23, our Primary Care Link Worker and Ways to Wellbeing Social Prescribing Teams supported 3541 patients in York. Of those patients:
- 92% felt more able to manage their health and wellbeing after working with their Social Prescriber
- 95% of patients said they would not have made changes to improve their health and wellbeing if they had not worked with a Social Prescriber!
You can view our Social Prescribing Impact Report via the button below.
Watch Christine’s story here about how Social Prescribing impacted her life.
What is Social Prescribing?
Social Prescribing links individuals to non-medical sources of support to improve their health and wellbeing.
An individual might feel isolated or lonely, they might be feeling stressed or anxious due to work, money or housing problems. Whatever is impacting their health and wellbeing, Social Prescribers, also known as Link Workers, will work with individuals to explore what might make them feel better.
Social Prescribers:
- Help individuals to identify what would help and what they would like to change
- Connect individuals to appropriate services
- Help break down barriers e.g. transport, paperwork, location, practical issues
- Attend services or groups with individuals for the first time if they’re nervous to do so
- Support and encourage individuals to work towards their personal goals.
Social Prescribers or Link Workers might introduce an individual to a local community group, or a new activity or a local club. They might help find legal advice or support an individual to access debt counselling. They might help find information and guidance by providing the details of local resources.
The role of Social Prescribing is to support individuals to take greater control over their health and wellbeing.