Social prescribing is a service that links individuals with activities and supports in their local communities. There is usually a wide variety of activities available in the community such as art classes, walking groups, men’s shed programmes etc., that people don’t know about. Social prescribing helps individuals to identify what they would like to do and where they can do it. Studies in England show that social prescribing helps to improves people’s health and well-being and can reduce social isolation.
A social prescribing service has been set up in Rialto to help people to find out what activities are available in Rialto and to help people to access these activities. A study is being carried out to see if people find this service useful in helping them to attend activities in their community, and if so, did these activities help them to improve their health and well-being.
Everyone who attends the social prescribing service has been invited to participate in the study. If they agree, they are asked to fill in some questionnaires about their health before and after social prescribing to find out if their health improves. They have also been invited to talk to the researchers about their opinions of social prescribing. If social prescribing helps people to feel better, the research team hope that this study will help them to get funding for a larger study to examine the usefulness of social prescribing.
