A research project looking at how social prescribing might help children and young people access community activities and improve mental health is encouraging young people to come forward to take part.
At a time when many children and young people are experiencing mental health difficulties and services are struggling to cope, the CHOICES: CHildren and young people’s Options In the Community for Enhancing wellbeing through Social prescribing project wants to understand whether access to community activities through “social prescribing” could help.
Connecting people to social activities
Social prescribing connects people to social activities such as gardening programmes, books on prescription, exercise on referral, referral for debt counselling, or housing advice, and is often accessed through referral by a GP. The practice is growing in popularity, but there is a wide variation in how this is delivered. Researchers are keen to learn what works well and for whom.
Dr Kerryn Husk, Associate Professor of Health Services at Plymouth University said:
“Given the rapid roll-out of social prescribing we need more evidence on what works. It’s not a case of ‘one size fits all’ or even ‘x activity will work for y person’, it’s a case of examining the process as a whole and ensuring that everyone is aware of the key components to give a pathway the best chance of success.”
Why we’d like to speak to you
The CHOICES project team are hoping to address this evidence gap and are asking for children and young people to come forward to talk to them about their experiences with community activities and what ‘community’ means to them.
“One thing we’re really interested to explore through our interviews will be how children and young people themselves define how they are feeling.”
The project findings will support the development of further research work, and also feed into national collaborative work being led by the National Academy for Social Prescribing, and NHS England and Department for Health and Social Care.
Getting involved and help shape mental health services
If you’re interested in taking part or would like to chat about the project you can contact the CHOICES Team at choices@exeter.ac.uk.
You can find out even more information about our project here.