Social Prescribing—An Effort to Apply a Common Knowledge: Impelling Forces and Challenges

Abstract

In recent times, social prescribing has been introduced in some countries, and substantially in the U.K. The objective of this scheme is to offer non-medical care mainly to primary care patients. Although the idea of this scheme is not new, its formalization is. Using a narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed and gray literature, this article discusses the social prescribing scheme, some of its compelling aspects and challenges in offering non-medical care, particularly regarding referrals being made from primary care settings. The social prescribing scheme has several impelling forces that include its potential to turn primary care to primary healthcare, tackle social determinants of health and social needs, improve wellbeing and physical health, offer person-centered care, strengthen preventive care, and bridge healthcare organizations with the third sector. This scheme also faces several challenges including service standards and boundaries, sustainability, availability of appropriate services, low engagement of clients and insufficient evidence. While this scheme lacks validated evidence, it is theoretically compelling. Given that the demand for non-medical care is growing in most societies and that the usefulness of non-medical care is gaining prominence, social prescribing is likely to continue to proliferate.

Social Prescribing and Lifestyle Medicine—A Remedy to Chronic Health Problems?

“…As pointed out by Islam [ 6 ], social prescribing, sometimes referred to as “community referral”, does not seem to have a one agreed definition. Different entities responsible for SP provision in UK (where the term originated) propose few explanations of the concept that could be jointly summarised as “a non-medical referral option for GPs, for other medical and some non-medical professionals and also for self-referral to the sources of support”.…”

Challenges and Approaches to Green Social Prescribing During and in the Aftermath of COVID-19: A Qualitative Study

“…Within the overall framework of social prescribing, schemes follow different models; some receive funding from governments, others are funded and managed through private or charity sectors, while many are mixture of both. The most common referral model in the United Kingdom is the one where a Link Worker or designated Social Prescribing Advisor acts as a mediator between a referrer (typically a GP) and local service provider ( Islam, 2020 ). Under schemes with the capacity, referrals by other professionals, such as social workers and job center employees, as well as self-referrals, are also possible ( Mercer et al, 2019 ; Fixsen et al, 2020 ).…”

Developing a social prescribing local system in a European Mediterranean country: a feasibility study to promote active and healthy aging

“…For the elderly populations, SP is of increased importance, with some evidence of improvements in individual health, interaction with others, institutions, and society [ 37 , 38 ]. Our results are in line with previous literature that shows that SP is promising as a procedure in health, which can contribute to disease prevention and improvement in health systems responding to the priority societal challenge of demographic change, health and wellbeing [ 39 ].…”