Social prescribing: less rhetoric and more reality. A systematic review of the evidence
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TLDR
A systematic review of social prescribing programmes being widely promoted and adopted in the UK National Health Service found current evidence fails to provide sufficient detail to judge either success or value for money.Abstract:
Objectives Social prescribing is a way of linking patients in primary care with sources of support within the community to help improve their health and well-being. Social prescribing programmes are being widely promoted and adopted in the UK National Health Service and so we conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for their effectiveness. Setting/data sources Nine databases were searched from 2000 to January 2016 for studies conducted in the UK. Relevant reports and guidelines, websites and reference lists of retrieved articles were scanned to identify additional studies. All the searches were restricted to English language only. Participants Systematic reviews and any published evaluation of programmes where patient referral was made from a primary care setting to a link worker or facilitator of social prescribing were eligible for inclusion. Risk of bias for included studies was undertaken independently by two reviewers and a narrative synthesis was performed. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcomes of interest were any measures of health and well-being and/or usage of health services. Results We included a total of 15 evaluations of social prescribing programmes. Most were small scale and limited by poor design and reporting. All were rated as a having a high risk of bias. Common design issues included a lack of comparative controls, short follow-up durations, a lack of standardised and validated measuring tools, missing data and a failure to consider potential confounding factors. Despite clear methodological shortcomings, most evaluations presented positive conclusions. Conclusions Social prescribing is being widely advocated and implemented but current evidence fails to provide sufficient detail to judge either success or value for money. If social prescribing is to realise its potential, future evaluations must be comparative by design and consider when, by whom, for whom, how well and at what cost. Trial registration number PROSPERO Registration: CRD42015023501.read more
Citations
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Personal Wellbeing Score (PWS)-a short version of ONS4: development and validation in social prescribing.
TL;DR: The Personal Wellbeing Score (PWS) is a short variant of ONS4 based on the Office of National Statistics four subjective well-being questions (ONS4) and thresholds, suitable for routine use in quality improvement and health services research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Understanding loneliness: a systematic review of the impact of social prescribing initiatives on loneliness.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the impact of social prescribing (SP) programs on loneliness among participants and the population in a systematic literature review, and find that SP programs have a negative effect on loneliness.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global developments in social prescribing
Daniel F Morse,Sahil Sandhu,Kate Mulligan,Stephanie Tierney,Marie Polley,Bogdan Chiva Giurca,Siân Slade,Sónia Dias,Kamal R Mahtani,Leanne Wells,Hualei Wang,Bo Zhao,Cristiano Emanuel Marta De Figueiredo,Jan Joost Meijs,H. Nam,Kheng Hock Lee,Carolyn Wallace,Megan Elizabeth Elliott,Juan M. Mendive,David Robinson,Miia Palo,Wolfram J. Herrmann,Rasmus Østergaard Nielsen,Kerryn Husk +23 more
TL;DR: The ‘Beyond the Building Blocks’ framework is drawn to describe the essential inputs for adopting social prescribing into policy and practice, related to service delivery; social determinants and household production of health; workforce; leadership and governance; financing, community organisations and societal partnerships; health technology; and information, learning and accountability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Factors affecting general practice collaboration with voluntary and community sector organisations.
K Southby,Mark Gamsu +1 more
TL;DR: The identified factors affecting GP-VCS collaboration reflect those found in previous service evaluations and the broader literature on partnership working; shared understanding, time and resources, trust, strong leadership, operational systems and governance and the "negotiation" of professional boundaries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social Prescribing-An Effort to Apply a Common Knowledge: Impelling Forces and Challenges.
TL;DR: 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.
References
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