At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we know that social prescribing works and that it can be adapted and applied to various sectors. One sector it has a big impact on is social care. In an ADASS survey, last summer, it was identified that nearly 300,000 people are waiting for assessment of their needs by a social worker. As the number of people waiting continues, resources are more stretched further, and budgets reduce year on year, the amount of pressure building on social care services to meet their demand is increasing rapidly. In most cases they often cannot reach their demand leaving further pressure to build on the NHS. Read more about the updates here.
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we know that social prescribing works and that it can be adapted and applied to various sectors. One sector it has a big impact on is social care.
In an ADASS survey last summer, it was identified that nearly 300,000 people are waiting for an assessment of their needs by a social worker.
As the number of people waiting continues, resources are more stretched further, and budgets reduce year on year, the amount of pressure building on social care services to meet their demand is increasing rapidly. In most cases they often cannot reach their demand leaving further pressure to build on the NHS.
Social prescribing, therefore, can offer some assistance to ease that pressure. Whilst individuals are waiting for assessments, social prescribing can help signpost individuals to services and interventions in the meantime to ensure their condition does not worsen, as well as help reduce the amount of care they may need.
How can social prescribing help social care workers?
Social prescribing can help reduce the pressure on social care workers in many different ways. One of the main ways it can help is by introducing safe and assured referral pathways to help signpost individuals to the support they need.
By having an outcome-based approach and through encouraging collaborative working, social care providers can demonstrate the value of social prescribing to help drive the same approaches in their main practices and help improve outcomes and the health and wellbeing of individuals further.
One of the ways we are planning to share how social prescribing can help social care services is through our upcoming webinar. In this social prescribing webinar we will share:
- Why it is important for social care to maximise its use of preventative services
- The benefits of having an interactive Directory of Services
- The importance of providing social workers full visibility of the uptake and impact social prescribing has on an individual beyond the referral
- How safe and assured pathways into preventative services can be created with our interoperability with our Social Care Case Management solution, Access Mosaic
- How to get started using the functionality
This webinar will be beneficial for end-users that already use Mosaic or individuals that are interested to find out more about our Access Elemental and Mosiac integration and to see first-hand the benefits this integration will provide. For more information on our webinar and how social prescribing can be a bigger part of social care register your interest today and we cannot wait to share in more detail how social prescribing can help social care services.
What are the benefits of a fully interactive Directory of Services for social prescribing and social care?
It can be argued one of the most important ways to relieve pressure on social workers is by having a fully organised and interactive Directory of Services that offers services to help with every need in the community.
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we have been able to see first-hand how this is possible and how social prescribing can be used as a preventative measure to help social care services.
One of our customers, Lancaster District CVS found through using our social prescribing platform they were able to recategorise and organise their Directory of Services to be more adapted to their community’s needs. Now they have over 250 fully regulated and compliant interventions available for individuals across their community which are monitored through our software.
With Lancaster District CVS using our Access Elemental Population Plus Enhanced module we are able to help Lancaster CVS upkeep the directory on a separate website. This has allowed users to click on the services most appropriate to them to make their journey even easier when finding the support, they want or need.
Through monitoring the directory on a separate website, we can easily track and monitor records to identify which services are the most popular, which referral agents are making the most referrals, and help them adapt to support every social care need.
Here we have been able to create safe and assured pathways for the 3rd sector to transform how social prescribing is delivered and help individuals overcome the wider social determinants of health they may be suffering with.
This demonstrates how collaborative working across the community not only improves the health and wellbeing of an individual but how it also helps reduce pressure on social workers and GP practices alike as newer non-clinical ways to treat social issues are explored.
Our Co-Founder and Managing Director at Access Elemental Social Prescribing, Jennifer Neff, explains the benefits of collaborative working on one of Building Better Healthcare’s latest articles by stating that:
“The most forward thinking ICSs are ensuring that the IT systems used by their mental health, primary care, social care, housing, and education providers work closely with social prescribing systems to increase access to social prescribing through safe and assured pathways.”
For further information on how Access Elemental Social Prescribing can help optimise your Directory of Services download the full Lancaster District CVS case study today.
This month we are making it our number one goal to explain how social prescribing can help social care services. For more information discover our social prescribing software today.
Contact us now and let’s get the ball rolling to engage more individuals to be proactive in improving their health and mental wellbeing and help reduce the building pressure on social care services by signposting individuals to better preventative care services and interventions.
Discover more about The Access Group
The Access Group Health Support Care is an organisation that offers a variety of solutions across the care continuum to offer care homes, home care users, and local authorities alike the freedom to do more.
