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Social prescribing models and resources

About Social prescribing models and resources

What is social prescribing?

Social prescribing is a way of linking people with sources of support within the community to improve their health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing enables local organisations, including GP practices, to refer people to a link worker. Link workers give people time and focus on what matters to the person through shared decision making, personalised care and support planning.

Link workers can draw on a range of evidence informed models to guide conversations on personal wellbeing.

Evidence-informed models

PERMA Plus

Developed by the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, this model identifies factors that allow individuals, communities and societies to flourish.

Download the PDF

Positive emotion

Engagement

Relationships

Meaning

Achievement

Plus

  • Sleep
  • Nutrition (five vegetables and two fruits a day)
  • Physical activity
  • Optimism

Five Ways to Wellbeing

Five Ways to Wellbeing was developed by the New Economics Foundation as part of the Government’s Foresight project on Mental Capacity and Wellbeing.

Read our blogs on Five Ways to Wellbeing and the evidence gaps.

The model identifies five evidence-based actions to improve wellbeing

  • Connect
  • Be active
  • Take notice
  • Keep learning
  • Give

10 Keys to Happier Living

10 keys to happier living icons - Thriving, relating, exercising, awareness, trying out, direction, resilience, emotions, acceptance, meaning

Developed by Action for Happiness, the Ten Keys to Happier Living identifies actions that consistently tend to have a positive impact on people’s happiness and wellbeing.  The first five keys (GREAT) are about how we interact with the outside world in our daily activities. They are based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing.  The second five keys (DREAM) come from inside us and depend on our attitude to life.

Other useful resources for social prescribing

The Health Foundation – What makes us healthy

The Health Foundation has prepared a series of infographics, accompanying blogs and commentaries to describe and explain the social determinants of health in an accessible and engaging way.

C3 Collaborating for Health

Based in London, this global NGO builds multi-sector collaborations to address non-communicable diseases’ leading risk factors by promoting three behaviour changes:

  • improving what we eat and drink
  • stopping smoking
  • increasing physical activity

Wellbeing outcome measurement

Local areas are using a range of wellbeing outcome measurement tools, such as the ONS wellbeing scale and the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) to measure the impact of their social prescribing activity.

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing has online guidance to help organisations understand, measure, evaluation and analyse their wellbeing impact.

If you’ve carried out an evaluation of an intervention that used a wellbeing framework, or are planning to, please let us know so we can begin building an evidence base. You can email us at info@whatworkswellbeing.org.

Blog

Mar 21, 2024 | By What Works Centre for Wellbeing
What we know about national wellbeing, and the methods and measures to assess it 2014 – 2024
Guest Blog
Feb 29, 2024 | By Ingrid Abreu Scherer
How and why does creativity support wellbeing? New learnings
Centre Blog
Jan 25, 2024 | By Margherita Musella
What works to reduce frontline worker burnout? Reviewing the evidence
Centre Blog

People

External resource

  • ONS income and wealth
  • Our World Data -Happiness and Life Satisfaction
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