Social prescribing fits under the wider agenda across all four nations around a need to bring a more personalised approach to health and social care. This is a cultural shift in the way health and care is thought of and delivered – one that makes individuals active participants, not just passive receivers in their health and care. It places what matters to the individual at the heart of their health and social care.
You can find out more by downloading our RCOT Informed View - Social Prescribing.
For occupational therapists, personalised care is about focusing on people’s strengths and enabling individuals to carry out the activities they want and need to do in their lives. It is intrinsic to the profession, and always has been.
Occupational therapy has a lot to offer in delivering personalised care which focuses on prevention and wellbeing, both in health, social and work settings. However occupational therapists are a finite resource, to be used wisely. They have a unique contribution to make to social prescribing one that utilises their skills effectively.
RCOT has been working on the topic of social prescribing and the unique contribution occupational therapy can make for a considerable time – it’s been a thread woven throughout much of our work over the past few years.
What RCOT has been doing
- We have met and engaged with Matt Hancock MP’s team and the Department for Health and Social Care on the role and contribution of occupational therapists in providing the best possible health and social care services. We are actively continuing this dialogue and are committed to developing a constructive, collaborative relationship. RCOT was among several professional bodies advising the government and NHS England on the formation of the National Academy for Social Prescribing Academy. We will continue to advocate for the role of occupational therapist with the academy as their work develops.
- RCOT officers worked as part of an Advisory Group to develop an Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) social prescribing Framework. The framework's aim is to support AHPs to increase their social prescribing and to create a vision of social prescribing for AHPs. The project was led by Public Health England and Royal Society for Public Health, linking with NHS Improvement.
- An RCOT officer talked at the 2nd International Social Prescribing Network Conference in July 2019, giving practical examples of occupational therapists work and contribution to social prescribing.
- We are working with the NHS England Personalised Care Team, and we are the only AHP body to be named on the Universal Model of Personalised Care that has social prescribing as a key component. James Sanderson, director of personalised care, presented at the 2019 RCOT Annual Conference.
- We have promoted the role occupational therapists can take in social prescribing across the UK to managers, commissioners and politicians, including discussions with the Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Psychiatrists, NHS England and Northern Ireland HSC.
- We ran a round-table event with NHS England on personalised care, which included social prescribing.
- We attended and contributed to numerous social prescribing conferences across the UK, including the first Social Prescribing Conference at the Kings Fund, and at the Westminster Health Forum Keynote Seminar: Priorities for Social Prescribing.
- We spoke at the Westminster Policy Health Forum event in Wales on social prescribing in mental health in April 2017.
- We are working with Primary Care in Wales on the role that occupational therapists can play in supporting GPs.
- Recent articles in OTnews:
We’ve also spoken about social prescribing to stakeholders and engaged with members on the topic in many ways including at our branch events, at the RCOT Annual Conference, networking (on and offline) and at the RCOT Roadshows – we’ve also been engaging in the odd chat on Twitter! And of course we recognise that this is in addition to all the great work that our members are already doing to support the social prescribing agenda.
Social prescribing – your role
We believe that occupational therapists are essential in ensuring vulnerable people with complex needs are able to take advantage of social prescribing and strongly urge all RCOT members to get involved – we believe it is incumbent on all occupational therapists to actively support the social prescribing agenda, regardless of setting and caseload.
The key actions we encourage our members to take are the following.
- Be aware of, and actively signpost and refer people to, local community support services that enable social participation.
- Identify services and link workers in your local areas to help support people on your caseload. Link workers must have a clear pathway to occupational therapy practitioners when a person’s needs go beyond their level of competence and training.
- Challenge traditional boundaries of practice promote your skills in social prescribing. Whether this as a led in complex case management, seeking opportunities to lead, develop or build local social prescribing offer or contribute to and apply existing research in this area.
Our work on social prescribing is continuing, and we welcome the growing attention personalised care and social prescribing is getting on the public agenda. We are here to support all our members and to champion the occupational therapy profession. We want to hear from our members about their work around personalised care and their views on the role of our profession. Let us know how you’re helping to support and shape the personalised care agenda by contacting Paul Cooper, Lead Professional Adviser: paul.cooper@rcot.co.uk