Improving wellbeing and self-efficacy by social prescription

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2014.12.011

Public Health

Volume 129, Issue 3, March 2015, Pages 286-289

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2014.12.011 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Social Prescribing links patients in the Primary Care setting with non-medical sources of community support.
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The authors report the findings from an evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of a Social Prescribing initiative.
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The initiative was developed in partnership between a Mental Health Psychology Department and a Council's Cultural Partnerships Team.
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A series of free courses were offered to clients with mild to moderate mental health difficulties.
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Finding indicate this approach can contribute to improvement in well-being, Self Efficacy and a reduction in anxiety and depression.

Section snippets

Social prescribing initiative

This initiative was developed in partnership between a NHS and a Council's Cultural Partnerships Team. The project was funded by Creative Scotland and Fife Cultural Trust. A series of free courses were offered to clients with mild to moderate mental health difficulties such as anxiety/stress, depression and low self-esteem. Course content was decided following a consultation with service users, comprising a questionnaire and focus group, to establish which classes participants would like to

Current evaluation

Courses were advertised on the self-help moodcafe^a website and by leaflets which were given out by clinicians from the Psychology Department, from the Community Psychiatric Nursing Service and from Occupational Therapy. Participants could then self-refer to a class of their choosing, from the options offered by Fife Cultural Trust's Cultural Partnerships Team.

At the beginning of each course, participants were given a pack, by the course facilitator, comprising a set of three

Findings

262 pepople attended courses between January 2013 and June 2014. Of these 136 participants returned pre and post questionnaires and have been included in this evaluation. A further 36 participants returned incomplete questionnaires so this information could not be used. Another two participants noted the decline in their scores was consistent with other significant factors in their life therefore their data was not included. The average age of participants was 52 (SD, 11) years old, 37 of whom

Conclusions

These findings show a significant decrease in anxiety and depression scores as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADs⁹) indicating an improvement in both anxiety and depression for this participant group. There was a positive impact on well-being, measured by the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS¹¹), and Self Efficacy, measured by the Generalized Self Efficacy Scale (GSE¹⁰), with scores on both of these measures also gaining statistical significance. An

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Council's Cultural Partnership Team for their involvement, specifically Karen Taylor and Michelle Sweeney.

Ethical approval

The authors sought advice from NHS Scotland, East of Scotland Research Ethics Service on the above project. The Senior Co-ordinator considered the study and advised that it did not require ethical review under the terms of the Governance Arrangement for Research Ethics Committees (GAfREC) in the UK.

Funding

Creative Scotland and Fife Cultural Trust provided for funding this project and to

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References (11)

T. Stickley et al.
Social prescribing through arts on prescription in a UK city: participants' perspectives (Part 1)
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T. Stickley et al.
Arts of prescription: a qualitative outcomes study
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Social prescribing through arts on prescription in a UK city: referrers' perspectives (Part 2)
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L. Friedli
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Royal College of Psychiatrists
No health without public mental health: the case for action
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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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Short CommunicationImproving wellbeing and self-efficacy by social prescription

Highlights

Section snippets

Social prescribing initiative

Current evaluation

Findings

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Ethical approval

Funding

First page preview

Public Health

Public Health

Public Health

Mental health, resilience and inequalities

No health without public mental health: the case for action

Short Communication
Improving wellbeing and self-efficacy by social prescription