Social Prescribing and Mental Health report gets published

Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham are pleased to publish our report exploring the social prescribing service in  Barking and Dagenham, with a focus on mental health support.

Social prescribing is a service that aims to connect individuals with local activities, groups, and services to address their practical, social, and emotional needs that may influence their overall health and well-being.

We engaged with 54 local residents to assess awareness levels of social prescribing services in the local community and to explore the experiences of those who have used these services, identifying what is working well, and areas for improvement. 

Key findings:

• More needs to be done to raise awareness of the social prescribing offer in the local community
• Those that had used the service had positive experiences and shared encouraging feedback
• There is a huge potential for social prescribing to make a meaningful impact on the lives of residents, particularly those facing mental health challenges, loneliness, and social isolation.

We make a number of recommendation to the social prescribing service, including considering undertaking collaborative learning from other boroughs, and highlighting how people can access social prescribing.

You can download the report along with the official response from the service provider by accessing the link below.