Eleventh International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Health inequalities are one of the major ills of society; the current pandemic has only sought to highlight these inequalities further, particularly for those from BAME or lower socio-economic groups. Social prescribing is a method of decreasing those health inequalities. Social prescribing typically, but not exclusively, links patients referred from primary care services with community activities to improve patients’ mental, physical and social well-being. Key to this are the individuals that link patients referred through primary care and with community organisations to co-produce activities tailored to improving the well-being of the patient. These linking individuals, commonly known as Social Prescribing Coordinators (SPC), have an extremely complex role that can vary considerably. SPC’s need to be highly proactive (establishing and updating contacts primary care and the community), highly organised (maintaining contacts between referrers, patients and community organisations), with highly developed personnel skills (tact, listening skills, and tailoring available resources to individuals). This paper looks at the enablers and barriers to being an effective SPC through a systematic literature review. This paper is part of a wider initiative to evaluate a SP scheme in North Wales to contribute to the lessening of health inequalities and an improvement in overall well-being of residents; it forms part of a review into the available literature in the UK on vulnerable people and their health and well-being.