Defining social prescribing
People's physical and mental health and wellbeing is influenced by far more than what happens in a clinic. Housing, money, work, relationships, loneliness, and existing health conditions all shape how well someone is. Research suggests up to one in five primary care visits is for an issue that is primarily a social problem — something that medicine alone cannot resolve.
Social prescribing is an answer to that gap. It is a way to connect people with community-based services, groups and activities that meet practical, social, and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing — and that increase their active involvement with their own health and their community.
It works for a wide range of people, particularly those who:
- live with one or more long-term conditions
- need support with their mental health
- are lonely or isolated
- have complex social needs.
Where the link worker fits
Social prescribing link workers () are the human bridge between the clinical system and the rich tapestry of community support that exists outside it.
They sit at the heart of personalised care — alongside health and wellbeing coaches and care co-ordinators where those roles exist — and they spend time with people across multiple sessions, building trust and helping the person identify what matters to them.
That phrase — "what matters to you?" — sits at the centre of everything an does. The conversation is shaped by it.
What this course will give you
By the end of Foundations, you will be able to describe the role, explain how it sits inside personalised care, name the four core competency areas, and recognise what good induction and training looks like.