Dr Alison Fixsen, Senior Lecturer and Ethics Coordinator for the School of Social Sciences, was interviewed for BBC Morning Live about social prescribing on 7 June 2022.
Dr Fixsen was interviewed as part of a segment on the programme looking at the benefits of being prescribed a social or physical activity to support health and wellbeing, as an alternative to or working alongside medication.
The programme highlights the University of Westminster study, Evaluation of a Social Prescribing Pilot in Shropshire- implementation and impact findings (Polley et al., 2021), which showed a significant decline in people returning to their doctor with the same health issue after a social prescription.
Speaking about the kinds of activity which can be socially prescribed, Dr Fixsen said: “There are gardening clubs, for example, running clubs…Usually they are things which are provided by communities so it might be things like singing groups, art-based groups.”
Encouraging people to be open to the idea of receiving a social prescription, Dr Fixsen added: “So, the idea is that ideally social prescribing should be available to anybody whatever your ability, and so on. People have to know that there are alternatives, and perhaps not always think about medicines, and that maybe they shouldn’t be disappointed if a GP doesn’t give them painkillers and maybe try things differently.”
Watch the full segment on BBC iPlayer.
Related articles
