What is Social Prescribing?
We know that taking care of your health and wellbeing involves more than just medicine. With Social Prescribing you can get specialist support for more than medical issues. Your Social Prescribing Link Worker, who is linked with your GP practice, can spend time with you exploring what matters to you. We will assist and support you to plan your next steps and goals that you want to address and achieve.
Link workers can see you or speak to you in a way that you feel comfortable. They could chat to you on the phone, meet you at a community venue or sometimes visit at home. We have the time to get to know you and use our local knowledge to ensure that you are linked in with others that can help.
Together we can explore;
- Your perspective of a situation.
- What is important to you
- What you would like things to be like
- How we can move closer to what you would like to achieve by considering what has worked for you in the past, who you know and who we know that can help. Our links include support services provided by the NHS, the local council, Leicestershire County Council, local voluntary and community groups and so many more.
How Link Worker have supported others linked to your practice;
By giving time to people to express and explore their feelings to really find out what the concerns are.
- Help with knowing who to talk to about housing, benefits, financial problems.
- Advice on who can help with employment, training and education
- Help with exercise, sports, gym, fitness classes or simply knowing your local walking groups are.
- Finding outdoor activities, creative spaces, arts or music groups.
- We can also support those who are looking to volunteer locally or wanting to start a new group in their community.
- People have said that it has made a difference because..
- They feel less isolated,
- They feel that they have more choices,
- They feel listened to and understood.
Our Social Prescribers help you to look after your health and wellbeing your way. We all need help sometimes; your link worker can help you to create your own social prescription using their knowledge of local support networks.
If you would like to know more please watch the video below. If you think that a link worker is the right person to help you then please ask any member of your staff at your GP practice.