Photo: National Academy for Social Prescribing.

HVA leads social prescribing pilot project

A pilot project is under way led by Hastings Voluntary Action which is aimed at identifying the benefits of supporting older people through social prescribing. Nick Terdre reports.

Backed by a grant of £25,000, Hastings Voluntary Action is leading a pilot project to test how social prescribing can be brought to bear to address the needs and priorities of older people living locally. Social prescribing involves putting people in touch with relevant sources of help or advice to tackle underlying problems which are causing their health to suffer.

In HVA’s words, “Many things that affect the health of older people can’t be treated by doctors or medicine alone, like loneliness, debt, or stress due to financial pressures or poor housing. Social prescribing can connect people to non-medical support to address these issues and other unmet needs.”

Working with other local organisations, HVA is arranging a variety of social drop-in sessions and health and wellbeing activities at which social prescribing will be offered to older people. These sessions aim to ‘myth bust’ some of the misconceptions around social prescribing and also to reach some of those hardest to reach older people in our community, it says.

The final stage of the pilot, which will run until August, will involve working with older people and stakeholders to design a longer-term social prescribing service for older people specific to Hastings needs.

The pilot – another is being run in Leicester – represents the latest phase in a larger programme led by The National Academy for Social Prescribing, funded through a partnership with Independent Age. It is building on insights generated by earlier work, which involved researching existing barriers and health inequalities.

“This work forms a legacy to the work we have done previously in Hastings with the Centre for Ageing Better around Age Inclusive Volunteering and also more recently on our journey to become an Age Friendly Community,” said Debby Anderson, age-friendly project worker at HVA.

“The pilot is an exciting opportunity to use that learning to create a service specifically shaped by and fit for supporting people in later life around a range of needs and we are looking forward to working with NASP, Independent Age and local stakeholders to make that happen.”

Emily Cousins, NASP’s national lead for older people, said: “We hope that this work will enable us to support more older people, helping to address health inequalities and making provision more diverse, accessible and inclusive.”

For more information about the pilot project, or if you are interested in becoming involved, please contact Debby Anderson at HVA on 01424 444010 or via email.

Also in: Campaigns