Social Prescribing and Green Care

When you feel unwell and make an appointment with your doctor, you probably anticipate that he or she may offer medication, tests or even healthy living advice but you probably don't expect to be prescribed a weekly art class or gardening club! This is the relatively new concept of social prescribing that allows health professionals to offer non-medical services to support a patient's health and wellbeing.

In 2019 I attended a regional presentation delivered by medical practitioners and attended by local voluntary service providers. The purpose of the session was to discuss social prescribing and explain why the NHS was funding pilot projects that considered the potential benefits of personalised approaches for patient treatment plans. These projects used link workers as the conduit between doctor's surgeries, the patients and the activity providers within the community. 

For some individuals with long term health conditions, mental health issues, or those suffering from loneliness or isolation, medication is not always the most appropriate answer. Offering activities such as sports, cookery classes, lunch clubs or one of the many other types of pursuits available in the wider community could encourage individuals to meet new people and enjoy greater social contact, perhaps take up a hobby or learn a new skill. 

Green care activities such as spending time on a care farm, in a community orchard, working with a gardening group or as part of an allotment association, are all excellent options for those being offered a social prescription. Indeed, this is a fairly common approach in parts of Europe and health practitioners frequently refer clients to farms and gardens as a part of their treatment plan. Part of my Churchill Fellowship research will examine specifically how farmers in Italy, Norway and Ireland have diversified into care farming as a result of social prescribing and other commissioned services. 

Early research into the social and economic impacts of social prescribing are showing promising findings with more results being published all the time. From my own conversations with the operators of care farms and gardens, this may not have yet filtered down to those working on the ground (excuse the pun). For example, many of the owners and managers I spoke to in England, said that they found the referrals process to be very slow and that few clients were coming through the system. However, they remain optimistic that as the benefits of social prescribing become more well known, their services will be in greater demand.