1 week Ago By [email protected] (Sam Volpe)
A Newcastle team that's the biggest of its kind in the North East is working across the city to support people here to "live happier and healthier lives". Social prescribing is a growing phenomenon - and the next time you visit your GP you may well see that in the surgery a social prescriber is on hand to help with things that may not be medical issues, but which nonetheless have an impact on your health. That might mean you face housing problems and need a hand solving them - or perhaps you need a helping hand to navigate the support available for your mental health.
In Newcastle, a 29-strong team of these people work as part of Newcastle GP Services (NGPS) at practices across the city. Social prescribing manager Jo Swift told ChronicleLive how a long history of working to build community connections - she even spent time helping to run a charity building schools for refugees in Thailand - lent itself to working as part of a collaborative team in the city. Jo said: "I have always been interested in community development and worked as a volunteer manager.
I went over to Thailand and worked initially as a volunteer and then became overseas director of a small charity building schools for Burmese migrants and refugees. Building community connections is something I've always been interested in." She explained how she came back to the UK and worked as a social prescriber in North Yorkshire before moving to the North East, where she took up her present role late in 2024.
She said: "We have now got the biggest social prescribing team in the North East. That's 29 social prescribers across the city with different specialist skills and includes people who speak different languages. We have people who work with refugees, the over-65s, or who are specialists in drugs and alcohol support.
Keep up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East with our free newsletter "Our role is to empower and help people to live happier and healthier lives. We look at people holistically and help them to get where they want to be." Social prescribing is a relatively new concept - but the idea is borne from the sense that for many GPs, the issues driving people to make appointments were often more to do with their circumstances than any specific health condition.
Jo added: "Social prescribing in Newcastle is an extremely important and valued by the surgeries we work in. We work in lots of different areas and we find that each PCN [primary care network] and each surgery and its patients have different needs. "As social prescribers, a lot of our work can be referring people to other community groups and voluntary organisations.
So we find it's really important that we know the people we are referring patients towards. We organised to go to 17 different groups that we refer to across two days." This took place on national social prescribing day earlier this spring - and saw the NGPS visit partners such as the West End Refugee Service, Equal Arts, the ReCoCo recovery centre, Smart Works and James' Place.
They also spent time with the Lantern Project at Newcastle Cathedral - which supports those dealing with homelessness. The idea was to foster connections and the sense that this city works as a team to help the people living here. Jo added: "When we get a referral it can be very simple - this patient needs help with housing.
"But you can start talking to them and it's out job to get to know people and build a trusting relationship. There is a whole spectrum of places where we can refer into and the most important thing for us is to ask the patient what do they want to achieve through this - and how can we help. "It's a city-wide team.
And absolutely I am all about collaboration and working with others. I find that things are so much better when you are sharing information rather than working in isolation." Looking ahead, there are a range of events planned - with a community mental health event for people who have come to Newcastle from Slovakia or Czechia set for the coming weeks.
For more information about what's on offer, speak to your local GP practice team. ChronicleLive is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our communities. We have a number of communities to join, so you can choose which one you want to be part of and we'll send you the latest news direct to your phone.
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