Round Up: The King’s Fund ‘Social Prescribing: Coming of Age’

This week, The King’s Fund hosted their largest conference to date focusing on social prescribing, where attendees were able to find out what learning has been made from the different social prescribing models already being implemented across the country and what resources are there available for the expansion of social prescribing in their local area.

We were given the chance to hear from patient voice, Arabella Tresilian who spoke about the significance of social prescribing on her journey to mental wellbeing.

 

 

The conference also included several prominent speakers such as Dr Michael Dixon, National Clinical Lead for Social Prescription and Health Secretary, Matt Hancock who discussed the positive impact social prescribing has had on patients and how it has been a key tool in elevating pressures on our NHS and reducing inappropriate A&E attendance.

The Health Secretary made his commitment to establishing a national academy for social prescribing which will act as an advocate for the initiative where resources will be available to GPs and link workers such as access to training and tools.

 

It was inspiring to hear medical student, Bogdan Chiva Giurca, Founder and Chair, NHS England National Social Prescribing Student Champion Scheme, announce a National Social Prescribing Day on the 15th March.

 

An exhibition of digital providers and champions of social prescribing included Elemental, Simply Connect, Connect Link, Intelligent Health and Health Unlocked. It was thrilling being in a room full of bright and excited innovators and hardworking professionals and engaging in discussion and forming new partnerships.

The future for social prescribing looks promising; the 2nd International Social Prescribing Network Conference is set to be on 11th-12th July 2019 organised by the University of Westminster. We look forward to seeing social prescribing gain more national and international recognition and wider implementation in the future.

 

Written by Isra Ahmed 

2 Comments
  1. Sorry I missed this event.
    Love the idea of National Social Prescribing Day!

  2. Evertone loves it when individuals get together and share ideas.
    Great site, continue the good work!

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