Understanding and Improving Older People’s Well-Being through Social Prescribing Involving the Cultural Sector: Interviews from a Realist Evaluation

Abstract

Social prescribing is a non-clinical approach to addressing social, environmental, and economic factors affecting how people feel physical and/or emotionally. It involves connecting people to “community assets” (e.g., local groups, organizations, and charities) that can contribute to positive well-being. We sought to explain in what ways, for whom, and why the cultural sector can support social prescribing with older people. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 older people (aged 60+) and 25 cultural sector staff. The following nine concepts, developed from interview data, progressed the understanding of tailoring cultural offers, which came from our previous realist review— immersion, buddying, café culture, capacity, emotional involvement, perseverance, autonomy, elitism, and virtual cultural offers. Through tailoring, we propose that older people might experience one or more of the following benefits from engaging with a cultural offer as part of social prescribing—being immersed, psychological holding, connecting, and transforming through self-growth.

Community initiatives for well‐being in the United Kingdom and their role in developing social capital and addressing loneliness: A scoping review

“…Some social prescribing services have the capacity for link workers or volunteers to accompany people to community initiatives the first time they attend, although the increased demand for social prescribing services may make this difficult. Having a ‘buddy’ system in place, whereby new users can talk to someone from the community initiative in advance, and having a member of staff who is available to meet them there when they first arrive, are proposed to help new users overcome the hurdle of trying a group or activity for the first time 55 …”

“…Having a 'buddy' system in place, whereby new users can talk to someone from the community initiative in advance, and having a member of staff who is available to meet them there when they first arrive, are proposed to help new users overcome the hurdle of trying a group or activity for the first time. 55…”

Green Social Prescribing in Practice: A Case Study of Walsall, UK

“…The social and cultural differences revealed as motivation, personal preference, and interest must be catered to. This highlights the importance of inclusive and collaborative approaches [102] as an effective way to tailor the interventions to the different needs and aspirations of people, to identify meaningful outcomes and feasible and robust methods for the uptake of SP. In the meantime, it is challenging for the system and services to be tailored to match this, highlighting the importance of joined up, adequately funded, suitable activities, and of the importance of people, their passion, knowledge, and experience, whether they are link workers or VCSEs.…”