Exploring social prescribing for children and young people in community and hospital settings
Many children with neurodisability have high levels of medical needs. They and their families also often have high levels of unmet non-medical needs which may be financial, emotional or social.
Social prescribing link workers based in hospitals can help families access support to address these needs.
This project included a systematic review of studies describing social prescribing interventions for children and young people with neurodisability. Studies reported benefits to health, well-being, healthcare usage, knowledge, skills, satisfaction and service delivery. Yet this type of service provision is very rare.
The work identified a large amount of unmet non-medical need in this group, which the link workers helped families to address.
The research team aim to co-develop a model of hospital-based link worker support that can be used widely for the benefit of children with complex health needs and their families.
Read a summary of the research findings on our evidence hub
Find out more
Project lead: anna.basu@newcastle.ac.uk