Welcome to our latest newsletter!
Hello my friends,
How are you holding up?
It was only 2 weeks ago we were celebrating #SocialPrescribingDay, which was an immense celebration of social prescribing globally. Congratulations to the National Student Social Prescribing Champions for organising a great day. Thank you to everyone who tweeted and got involved, it was uplifting and a real joy to celebrate how far we have all come.
But in life as well as ‘highs’ come the ‘lows’. Even though we could see Covid-19 coming, it doesn’t make it any easier does it? But it has happened and life now is different. At times I have found myself overwhelmed. How has it been for you?
Most of us on some level are probably experiencing grief for the loss of our usual friends, relationships and routines, jobs and sadly people. Have a read this brief article - grief is unpredictable and needs to be given space. So many parents have said that this is the week their children are all over the place emotionally. We can’t change it, but it can be helpful to know you are not the only ones experiencing it.
It is OK not to get through the list you wrote, the jobs you planned, the schooling, and what you set out to do. There is tomorrow. It takes time to reset our expectations. I have reached peace now with just getting through the day and hoping to have a plan for the next. I have not gone without food, I am safe and loved and I know am very fortunate.
For me limiting the news on the radio and TV to once a day has been the single most effective action I have taken to support my own mental health. The second best thing has been getting enough sleep. Lots of people have been posting compassionate messages, links to resources, live streaming physical activities. The College of Medicine, our partner organisation has self-care resources in their health directory. You can also sign up for their alerts to know what online support sessions are coming up.
I have found it incredible to see the amount achieved when red tape is removed, collaboration on a national and global level is encouraged and people realise they HAVE to work with the assets around them – the silver linings to the pandemic.
The compassionate work you have all been doing is fantastic and I am glad that social prescribing exists to identify and support the vulnerable people in our society. It is now a real Godsend for many people in the community and my hope is that this will shift the importance of community and providing VCSE organisations with core funding in the future.
Click here to see how Elemental have repurposed their digital platform to prioritise supporting a response to Covid-19. Other organisations such as Simply Connect are working with local authorities and charity partners to recruit volunteers locally to support the pandemic. These are only 2 of the many examples where existing social prescribing infrastructure is being mobilised. What have you been doing?
Midst the pandemic, work goes on, so please do remember to be kind to yourself whilst you are going all-out to help those around you, this is going to go on for a while and we need to pace ourselves. Check out the amended infographic from Wellbeing Enterprises CIC.
I end by highlighting a consultation on national guidance for children and young people's social prescribing in England that is launched today. If you are working in any capacity, in the children and young people’s sector commissioning, coordinating or providing services of any kind for children and young people anywhere in England, your views are welcomed and needed on this draft guidance.
Thank you and take care,
Marie Polley
Co-Chair, Social Prescribing Network
|
|
FUNDING
Organisations are mobilising to provide funding to support different aspects of the response to Covid-19. The most pertinent ones we found are below, but search google for Covid 19 funding and you will find regional, national and international calls. Note that many local government bodies are providing microfunding for groups to support the vulnerable and create virtual groups. Look at your local council webpages if you are in the UK.
Digital Health
NHSX brings teams from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement together into one unit to drive digital transformation and lead policy, implementation and change.
NHSX is calling on all innovators who can support the elderly, vulnerable and self-isolating during COVID-19 to apply for government funding of up to £25,000 to test their solution https://techforce19.uk/
The Arts Council England Covid 19 Support
Emergency funding measures are being put in place by the Arts Council England who are making £160 million of emergency funding available for those organisations and individuals who will need it during this crisis. Funding requirements for individuals and organisations currently in receipt of ACE funding have also been changed. Click here to read more
National Academy for Social Prescribing
On the 12th March the National Academy for Social Prescribing launched it's strategy, and a £1 million investment in local communities. Click here for more information
Culture in Quarantine
BBC Arts with Arts Council England, is launching a Culture in Quarantine fund for around 25 established England-based artists of any discipline to produce new works in creative media - video, audio and interactive.
They will be inviting brief expressions of interest explaining your idea, how it could be made, and a ballpark budget by Wednesday 8 April. Ideas can be submitted by artists or by the organisations that represent them. Collaborations between artists of different disciplines are welcome. The online application form, terms and conditions, and FAQ’s will be live by end of the week. Please send an email with the subject line “Please update me” to cultureinquarantine@thespace.org and we will email you as soon as the guidance and application form are published.
|
|
CAN YOU HELP US?
Consultation on National Guidance for Children and Young People's Social Prescribing
|
|
RESEARCH AND EVALUATION
Cultural environments can improve health and wellbeing through social prescribing.
A new report from Oxford University, entitled “In what ways can gardens, libraries and museums improve wellbeing through social prescribing?”, brings together the experience and expertise of health researchers in the University's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM), general practitioners, heritage sector specialists in the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM), and members of the public.
The research identified three key concepts that underpin the potential of garden, library and museum activities for improving health. The report can be downloaded from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.
Social Prescribing in Ontario
This evaluation report was produced by Dr Kate Mulligan and team at the Alliance for Healthier Communities, which represents community-governed primary healthcare organisations offering health and social services under one roof. This report details the learning and impact of 1,100 clients using social prescribing across 11 community health centres.
Arts & mental health activity in the UK
The Creatively Minded report is an of initial mapping of the Arts & Mental Health field in the UK recently published by The Baring Foundation. The report includes some arts organisations engaged in social prescribing and considers the context, including the recent changes in attitudes to mental health, national and local policy and cross-cutting issues such as the relationship between social inequalities and mental ill-health, diversity and intersectionality, and artists’ self-care. The report provides an overview of activity identified through the research, according to art form, type of organisation and setting and concludes with some initial reflections on the field. You can access the full report here.
Measure what we want: a taxonomy of short generic person-reported outcome and experience measures (PROMs and PREMs).
Produced by Tim Benson from R-outcomes and recently published in BMJ Open Quality this paper looks at the complexity of outcome measures and helps to organise the whole, explain what each measure does and identify gaps and overlaps. The full paper is available online.
Social return on social prescribing in Walsall
Walsall Council’s social prescribing programme, Making Connections Walsall, has been working with people aged 50+ since October 2017. It has been a valued programme, helping to boost people’s confidence, fostering new and lasting friendships and throwing people a lifeline. M·E·L Research carried out a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation of the programme, which has already helped to secure continuation funding. with a summary report now published.
|
|
EVENTS
As you can imagine, knowing when it will be safe to run an event is practically impossible to determine at this point in time and any events due to run upto June have been cancelled or postponed. We will keep you up-to-date as we receive information.
2nd International Social Prescribing Network Conference
This will run in 2021 when it is safe to bring everyone together. We will provide more details as we are able to make firm decisions on this.
Social Prescribing Network Awards 2020
We hope these will soon be open for submission and again we will provide more details in the next newsletter.
Social Prescribing & inequalities: critical conversation & practical approaches. 27th May 2020. University of Salford.
This conference has been postponed. All queries about the future date of the conference should be directed to Cormac Lawler - c.lawler1@salford.ac.uk
13th European Congress for Integrative Medicine 11th-13th September, London, UK
As it stands this Congress is still due to go ahead, however this may change and the organisers are working with the venue to monitor the situation carefully.
This congress brings together internationally relevant research and knowledge around medicine that supports the whole person. For the first time Social Prescribing is included in the agenda. The deadline for submitting a research abstract has also been extended to the 13th April 2020 so there is still time to share your data and knowledge of social prescribing. More information can be found here
MEDIA
The Daily Show with Andrew Pierce
Social Prescribing Network Co-Chair, Dr Michael Dixon, appeared on The Daily Show on the Daily Mail’s mailplus.co.uk site this week to discuss the coronavirus crisis with broadcaster Andrew Pierce. You can listen to the interview here, it begins at 7 mins.
#socialpreshour Join the conversation every Wednesday 8-9pm.
You are invited to join a dedicated conversation to social prescribing on Twitter, every Wednesday, 8-9pm GMT. There are over 4,000 followers including CCGs, Clinical Leads for Social Prescribing, VCSEs, Housing Associations and Local Authorities - d iscussing key themes, news and topics around social prescribing. The weekly @SocialPresHour will be hosted by a range of thought leaders throughout 2019.
Want to sign up to the social prescribing network or share something with us?
|
|
Copyright © 2020 Social Prescribing Network, All rights reserved.
| | | | |
