How can Be Collective be used to support Social Prescribing?
Be Collective is currently in the process of scoping and exploring a number of social prescribing projects worldwide. As a proven and established community volunteering solution, Be Collective can be adapted for use as a social prescribing support tool.
What is social prescribing?
Social prescribing is a model of care used to promote wellbeing, quality of life and social connection by referring individuals in need to programs and activities in the community and voluntary sector.
For example, a front-line health professional can refer an individual patient to a link worker, who can in turn collaborate with the patient to design a 'prescription' in the form of a volunteer opportunity with a local community group. The increased level of engagement with the community this engenders, combined with the patient's agency in the prescribing process, can improve the individual's health and wellbeing in a way that can complement conventional medical care.
Social prescribing is a rapidly growing movement which can relieve the burden on primary care. It is also a particularly useful method of tacking issues such as loneliness, social isolation and associated impacts on mental health. It can also be used to connect people with services that can provide support with issues such as debt, benefits and housing. Be Collective supports the multi-agency collaboration required for social prescribing programs to be successful. It can also innovate social prescribing practices in that:
It is centred on the development, ownership and management of an individual social prescription and record.
The record is portable through the individual's health and wellbeing journey.
Individual experiences can be self-assessed using health metrics such as the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/platform/wemwbs/about/.
The platform is easy to use and accessible to those who need access to it according to their role e.g. the individual, their practitioner and support worker.
If you’re keen to explore how Be Collective can support your social prescribing programs, please feel free to get in touch with us at help@becollective.com