Social prescribing and community pharmacy
Social prescribing and community pharmacy
Social prescribing is a service provided by healthcare professionals in primary care to help connect people in their communities to local, non-clinical groups (e.g. community and voluntary sector activities) and services. It aims to improve mental health and physical wellbeing, and reduce the negative health impacts of loneliness, poor health and disability. It is sometimes referred to as community referral.
Social prescribing by nation
In England, the NHS Long Term Plan stated that over 1,000 trained social prescribing link workers (within primary care networks) would be in place by the end of 2021, then rising further with the aim that over 900,000 people can be referred to social prescribing schemes by 2024.
Research suggests that pharmacists are mostly involved in social prescribing as referrers (i.e. identifying patients that could potentially benefit from social prescribing). Structured medication reviews, the Discharge Medicines Service and the New Medicine Service provide important opportunities for pharmacy professionals across the primary care pathway in England to identify and refer people to some form of community support.
Examples of social prescribing interventions that pharmacy teams have carried out include community gardening initiatives; projects to address inactivity such as exercise classes; running mental health support sessions; combating loneliness; and increasing the quality of life for patients with diabetes through community education projects.
In June 2022, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in collaboration with the National Association of Link Workers released a position statement on pharmacists and social prescribing to raise awareness and encourage appropriate referrals. Recommendations included the need to increase awareness of social prescribing and access to dedicated training for pharmacy teams.
In Northern Ireland, there are pockets of good practice, one example being the IMPACTAgewell – Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership (meaap.co.uk). Another is the establishment of a social prescribing development board to map current provision and deliver a more sustainable approach.
Social prescribing in Scotland is predominantly locally commissioned (e.g. weight management schemes) but national guidance on the use of social prescribing for mental health has been developed by NHS Health Scotland in partnership with the Self-Management and Social Prescribing National Advisory Group.
In Wales, social prescribing is an area of increasing activity with direct relevance to public health where community pharmacies, although not formally involved, still play an important role.
Making a reflective account – an example
You could use a reappraisal of your approach to social prescribing as part of your revalidation reflective account.
Here is an example of what that account could look like:
“After completing a CPD module in Pharmacy Magazine about population health, I decided to take stock of our current public health activities. I asked our team member who leads on this to read the module and make suggestions on how we could make a start on incorporating involvement in social prescribing.
“We discussed ideas at our staff meeting and agreed we would link to forthcoming local public health campaigns.
The team already does a lot of signposting and thought we could build on this to enhance the options that we suggest to people. When we looked at the campaigns for the next six months, we found that we already knew people and places to refer to for most of them.
“Where there were gaps, specific team members were tasked to find and make contact with relevant organisations to supplement our existing signposting resource list. I have gradually got to know the practice pharmacist at our local surgery and spoke with her to find out who is their lead person on social prescribing. The pharmacist introduced us via email, explaining about community pharmacy public health activities and how we might work together.
“The social prescribing contact was pleased to be in touch and we exchanged information, checked what resources we would both use and explored two-way referrals to make best use of our teams’ time. This helped to strengthen our links and we agreed to have a brief conversation every other month to avoid duplication of effort and capitalise on our strengths.
“In terms of the GPhC standards, my post-CPD actions will contribute to person-centred care and improved partnership working with our local surgery.”
Conclusion
In the UK, pharmacy professionals are recognised as important contributors in the delivery of public health interventions. The changing health landscape and government policy to increase the involvement of pharmacy teams will require pharmacy professionals to contribute further to developing and delivering public health interventions, especially those that help tackle health inequalities.