“Social prescribing is about helping people to live their best full life”
Talented scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses, clinicians and care workers across Wales dedicate their time and effort developing ground-breaking medicines and care for us.
After working in social prescribing for 3 years, Fern Jones knew that a PhD opportunity in the sector was the right career move for her.
Fern’s PhD project is all about finding evidence towards creating a consistent training pack for link workers, the people who deliver social prescribing out in the community, in Wales.
She is one of three social care PhD students funded by the 2020/21 Health and Care Research Wales Social Care PhD Studentship Scheme.
What is social prescribing?
“Social prescribing is a really exciting area of health and wellbeing to work in. It's gathering pace and becoming more widely used and recognised in Wales, partly due to the impact of high-quality research through the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research.
“It’s all about connecting people to their community to improve their health and wellbeing. You can use the five ways to wellbeing to have conversations with people about what matters to them, unpicking their own path towards feeling better. Social prescribing is about helping people to live their best full life, to be well, whilst freeing up doctors and nurses, and capacity in the NHS.
“An example of this would be an older lady in her 80s reporting low mood and anxiety to her GP. The GP received her consent to refer her to her local social prescribing service.
“After meeting the lady and discussing what mattered to her, the link worker discovered she had recently lost her husband. Not only was she grieving her partner, but she had lost her main source of transport through the car that he drove.
“The link worker co-produced a goal plan with her around her interests, highlighting her strengths and any barriers she may face. The lady loved needlecraft, and her strength here was that she was a chatty and sociable person. Her barrier was that she hadn’t used public transport in 30 years.
“Together, the lady and the link worker applied for a bus pass and became involved in a project that builds confidence on public transport and found information about a local craft group on her bus route.”
Developing a training package suitable for Wales
“I was working as a social prescriber in Pembrokeshire, and we were having to find our own training because there isn't an agreed training pathway in Wales. Lots of resources were from England but they didn’t fit too well with the Welsh context. I wanted to apply for this PhD to make sure we get a well-suited training package in Wales for link workers, the key people involved in social prescribing.
“I did a psychology degree and postgraduate course which is well suited to this project as it explores human behaviours, why we do what we do. I was over the moon to be appointed. I’m still working in social prescribing one day a week to keep my networks open and my knowledge and experience up to date.
“I’d like to end up teaching and researching more in this area, setting up other social prescribers in Wales. I hope the training can remove the ‘postcode lottery’ that currently exists in social prescribing in Wales, making sure standardised knowledge is shared across the country whilst also recognising community need varies across communities in Wales and makes a difference to the training required.
“Having a better understanding of the way social prescribing training works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why, can help policy makers and key stakeholders make evidence-based changes to training programmes.”
The Health and Care Research Wales Social Care PhD Studentship Scheme funds talented individuals to undertake research and study leading to a PhD in Wales.
The scheme supports health and social care research by funding high-quality research projects, providing robust evidence which addresses the social care needs of service users, carers and the wider population, and the organisation and delivery of efficient and effective social care services in Wales.
Read more about Health and Care Research Wales funding schemes on our webpage.
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