Social prescribing
This online training is designed to introduce the concept of social prescribing and complement the toolkit on how to implement social prescribing, with a special focus on the Western Pacific region. The course is meant to support social prescribing implementation at the community level. It outlines the concrete steps required to introduce a social prescribing scheme and train healthcare, community, social workers, and volunteers to become ‘link workers’ specialized in supporting social prescribing. It includes case studies, interviews, and regional good practices which can be adapted to the local context of the various learners.
Overview: The target audience of the course are both organizations and individuals, such as community health care facilities, long-term care facilities, mental health clinicians, and healthcare workers. Policy makers and health and social welfare authorities may also find the content useful for decision making related to their policies and processes related to social services. The course aims to provide simple and concrete steps to implement social prescribing so that managers and staff at community health care facilities feel confident and empowered to utilize social prescribing as a pathway to improve health and well-being.
The online learning course will be based on the link worker competencies listed in the WHO Social prescribing toolkit.
What you’ll learn
Define social prescribing and the social determinants of health
Use appropriate communication skills, identify and analyze patients’ needs in the context of social determinants of health
Implement social prescribing activities to improve the overall well-being of patients
Locate and match community resources with patients
Evaluate your own practice and impact on patients as a link worker
Ensure your own wellbeing as a link worker
Further develop your skills as a link worker.