Social prescribing link workers—A qualitative Australian perspective

Leah S. Sharman · Niamh McNamara · Shaun Hayes · Genevieve A. Dingle

41 citations0/0 files storedHealth & Social Care in the Community

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Abstract

Social prescribing (or community referral) is a model of healthcare designed to address social needs that contribute to poor health. At the heart of social prescribing programs is the link worker, who liaises between clients, health professionals and community organisations. Social prescribing is newly emerging in Australia but there are already calls for a large-scale roll out. This research, therefore, aimed to understand Australian link workers' role and skills required, to determine where such a workforce could be drawn from in Australia, and to identify what training and resources are needed to support this potential new workforce. To explore these questions, interviews were conducted with 15 link workers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants were predominantly female (87%); and primarily had qualifications in social work (47%) or nursing (27%). Three overarching themes were identified: (1) skills of successful social prescribing, identifying that link work requires multifaceted social and emotional skills; (2) workforce issues, presenting that link workers experienced challenges such as a lack of available support and training, lack of public awareness of social prescribing and a lack of sustained funding; and (3) job fulfilment, related to link workers' sense of reward and accomplishment from the job. We suggest that fostering job fulfilment in conjunction with the provision of increased support, training and security will reduce feelings of overwork and burnout among link workers and likely lead to longevity in the role. Social prescribing has the potential to be hugely beneficial to clients and the community and fulfilling for link workers, provided that sufficient advocacy and resources are put in place.

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References

2017Social prescribing: less rhetoric and more reality. A systematic review of the evidence 2017Non-clinical community interventions: a systematised review of social prescribing schemes 2019What approaches to social prescribing work, for whom, and in what circumstances? A realist review 2020Supporting social prescribing in primary care by linking people to local assets: a realist review 2019The social cure of social prescribing: a mixed-methods study on the benefits of social connectedness on quality and effectiveness of care provision 2019Service-users’ perspectives of link worker social prescribing: a qualitative follow-up study 2020Social Prescribing for Individuals Living with Mental Illness in an Australian Community Setting: A Pilot Study 2019Link workers’ perspectives on factors enabling and preventing client engagement with social prescribing

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2024A rapid review of opportunities and challenges in the implementation of social prescription interventions for addressing the unmet needs of individuals living with long-term chronic conditions 2024A controlled evaluation of social prescribing on loneliness for adults in Queensland: 8-week outcomes 2022Social Prescribing: A Review of the Literature

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