{"id":24149,"date":"2023-10-25T15:56:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=24149"},"modified":"2023-10-25T15:56:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:56:02","slug":"social-prescribing-could-help-support-young-people-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/social-prescribing-could-help-support-young-people-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Social prescribing could help support young people\u2019s mental health \u2013\u00a0but calls for a national strategy in England may be\u00a0premature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackie Musgrave, <\/span><\/a>Associate Head of School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport, at The Open University, writes for The Conversation about how social prescribing could help support young people’s mental health.<\/p>\n

A growing number of children and adolescents<\/a> in England are seeking access to mental health services. But the demand for these services is far outstripping capacity \u2013 and in some areas of England, children are waiting<\/a> more than a year for support. It\u2019s clear new strategies are needed to address this growing need.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s charity Barnardo\u2019s has suggested in its recently published report that social prescribing<\/a> could be one effective way of addressing this demand. They\u2019ve called on the government to introduce a national social prescribing strategy to offer children and adolescents a community-based, non-clinical alternative to traditional mental health services.<\/p>\n

Social prescribing<\/a> refers to the practice of GPs \u201cprescribing\u201d activities or community services to a person with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing. This is usually done with the help of a \u201clink worker\u201d \u2013 a person who knows the community well and will identify activities that will best suit the person. A link worker would be able to help a child get involved with a youth club that has activities suited to their interests and needs.<\/p>\n

Not a lot of research has been conducted to date on the use of social prescribing for children. As such, we don\u2019t really know what specific benefits social prescribing may have for children\u2019s mental health and wellbeing<\/a>. More research<\/a> will certainly be necessary before any national social prescribing programme can be rolled out.<\/p>\n

But while evidence for social prescribing in children may be limited, we know from research in adults that it can help improve quality of life<\/a> and reduce feelings of social isolation.<\/p>\n

Social prescribing for children and adolescents may also help to address some of the aspects of the contemporary childhood experience which are partly contributing to worse mental health<\/a> \u2013 such as children having fewer opportunities to play together outdoors in safe spaces and the pressure to perform well in school.<\/p>\n

Social prescribing could provide children with the opportunity to get out, be active and socialise with other children in the community. Research shows that physical activity can have many benefits for young people \u2013 including supporting their mental health<\/a>. Social isolation is also linked with depression and anxiety<\/a> in young people, so having an opportunity to meet friends and play could be important<\/a> in supporting the mental health of children and teens.<\/p>\n

Challenges to address<\/h2>\n

There are many aspects of social prescribing that could be beneficial to children\u2019s mental health. But before any national strategy is rolled out, there are a number of important factors that will need to be taken into account and addressed.<\/p>\n

The role of volunteers appears to be key to the success of social prescribing programmes for young people. A study conducted by a team of researchers at University College London investigated the barriers young people faced in accessing social prescribing<\/a> \u2013 as well as the view of people involved in providing these services. They found that some of the success of social prescribing relies on the skill and qualities of the link worker \u2013 with listening skills and empathy being key in gaining the cooperation of children.<\/p>\n

Providing additional funding and support to social clubs that already exist in communities could be one way to ensure the success of social prescribing strategies for children. This was evidenced by the success of the StreetGames charity<\/a>, which provided mental health support for young people aged 5-25.<\/p>\n

The charity worked with local community partners to provide activities and support for vulnerable young people and also provided funding for link workers. While an in-depth evaluation is needed to fully understand the benefit the programme had for children\u2019s mental health, it\u2019s deemed to be a successful model of social prescribing. It\u2019s success is partly attributed to the fact that the charity supported existing youth clubs that were run by local volunteers who knew the children well.<\/p>\n

A national social prescribing strategy would also need to ensure it accounts for how these activities can be made available to children who most need it \u2013 and that it\u2019s also accessible to those living in rural or deprived communities. Widening the ways social prescribing can be accessed \u2013 for instance through schools, not just a GP \u2013 will be critically important. Funding will also be necessary to train link workers that will help with this.<\/p>\n

And, because children are unique, it will be important to ensure funding is given to many different types of social prescribing activities. For instance, sports aren\u2019t everybody\u2019s cup of tea, and the needs of children and young people with disabilities or those who may find fitness challenging needs to be considered.<\/p>\n

With increasing numbers of children waiting for mental health treatment<\/a>, social prescribing is possibly one way of providing support to children while they wait for an assessment. It may also offer alternative approaches to promote mental health and wellbeing. But with minimal evidence showing its benefit, more research is needed before any programmes can be rolled out.\"The<\/p>\n

Jackie Musgrave<\/a>, Associate Head of School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport, The Open University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image: Yuri A\/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jackie Musgrave, Associate Head of School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport, at The Open University, writes for The Conversation about how social prescribing could help support young people’s mental health. A growing number of children and adolescents in England are seeking access to mental health services. But the demand for these services is far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[862,1525,1640,2200],"class_list":["post-24149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-languages-health","tag-faculty-of-wels","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}