danielle.wood

As the first trustees of NASP, we launched our first strategy just three months ago, with the following opening line: “We want people to be able to live the best life they can. A life that is defined by them. Not one that is limited by the place in which they live, who they are, or the resources available to them.” Social prescribing presents a major opportunity to break down barriers and enable people to talk about and connect to what matters to them.  It cuts through institutional hierarchy and connects people at a human level to community support, with the [...]

Bev Taylor, from NHS England’s Personalised Care team, has played a major role in gaining mainstream support for social prescribing across the NHS in England. Here she reflects on what she learnt from the unsung heroes in her life, who taught her what caring really means. When I started working on social prescribing at NHS England, nearly five years ago, I’d just lost my dad and my mum-in-law, on the same weekend, to cancer. They died within 30 hours of each other, which was awful, but at least meant we were dealing with everything efficiently, in one go! My [...]

Tim Anfilogoff, Head of Community Resilience for Herts Valleys CCG gives his reflections on Social Prescribing and Covid-19 in West Hertfordshire. In 2014, Herts Valleys CCG, in partnership with Herts County Council, commissioned four voluntary organisations to provide six community navigators.  This service was built on HertsHelp  which is a county-wide single point of access for expert triage to 12,000 entries on the community database.    The navigators soon showed the difference they could make ‘getting alongside’ people who needed - but would never ring – HertsHelp.  The service was expanded into the countywide Hospital and Community Navigator Service [...]

Alistair Clarke, MBE FRSA is chair of Social Enterprise Solutions writes about what it's like working in a social prescribing project during COVID 19. “I can’t use a computer. My husband could, but he died last November.” I’m on the phone to a woman in Blackpool in her 70s and I’m working on a social prescribing project in partnership with a number of GPs’ surgeries. I’m checking on her wellbeing, that she can access food and medication, and in that moment, I sensed how the harsh reality of recently losing a loved one combined with the Covid-19 lockdown had [...]