Social Prescribing Link Worker - Wallasey, United Kingdom - Wallasey Wellbeing Primary Care Network Limited

Description

Wallasey Wellbeing Primary

Care Network Limited

Job Description:
Social Prescribing Link Worker

Hours: 21 hrs per week across 3 days.


Salary:
Dependant on experience (up to A4C band 5 rates)


Contract Type:
Permanent


Purpose of the role

Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to non-clinical social prescribing link workers.

They give people time to focus on 'what matters to me' and take a holistic approach to an individual's health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing link workers:

• Take a whole population approach, working with a range of people who may benefit from social prescribing, including people who are lonely, have complex social needs, low level mental health needs and longterm conditions
• Help people to identify issues that affect their health & wellbeing, and coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan
• Support people by connecting them to nonmedical, communitybased activities, groups and services that meet their practical, social and emotional needs, including specialist advice services and arts and culture, physical activity, and nature and green based activities
• Use coaching and motivational interviewing techniques to support people to take control of their own health and wellbeing.
• Support development of accessible and sustainable community offers by working in partnership with VCSE organisations, local authorities and others to identify gaps in provision, and take a community development approach to enabling growth in community activities and groups.

Key responsibilities

• Take referrals from the PCNs Core Network Practices and from a range of local agencies and through selfreferrals.
• Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to access communitybased activities and support that can help them to take control of their health and wellbeing through coproducing a simple personalised care and

support plan and introducing people to appropriate activities, groups and services as described above

• Work with appropriate supervision as part of the PCN to manage and prioritise your own caseload, in accordance with needs, priorities and support required by individuals. Refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, as appropriate or necessary.
• Build ongoing relationships with local infrastructure organisations, community activities and support services to increase knowledge of the community support offer, and work collaboratively to develop effective partnership working to support the community offer to be sustainable, identifying gaps in provision, nurturing community assets and sharing intelligence on gaps or problems with commissioners and local authorities
• Increase the strength and capacity of the community, enabling local VCSE organisations and community groups to both receive social prescribing referrals and to make referrals to social prescribing link workers.
• Educate nonclinical and clinical staff within PCN MDTs on the community support offer, how and when patients can access it, and the value of nonmedical communitybased interventions. This may include verbal or written advice and guidance.
• Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN and wider agencies, including its role in supported selfmanagement, in addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health, reducing pressure on statutory services, improving access to healthcare and improving health outcomes, and in taking a holistic approach to care.

Key Tasks

Referrals

• Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN by attending relevant

MDT meetings to build relationships and developing links with local agencies

• Proactively develop strong links with local agencies to encourage appropriate referrals
• Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
• Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.
• Proactively encourage equitable participation in social prescribing through taking selfreferrals and connecting with diverse local communities through a range of methods, particularly communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach and where health inequalities are most prevalent.

Provide personalised support

• Meet people on a onetoone basis, making home visits and visits to community organisation where appropriate and within organisations' policies and procedures.
• Use appropriate judgement to ascertain the number and length of sessions required, responding to the needs of the individual and their circumstances, for approximately 612 contacts over 3 months.
• Give people time to tell their stories and focus on the question, 'what matters to me'?
• Build trust and respect with the person, providing nonjudg