MONDAY, 7 MARCH, 2016

EMBARGOED UNTIL PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 9.45AM, TUESDAY 8 MARCH, THE CRESCENT, 71 LOTHIAN CRESCENT, DUNDEE

Minister visits Dundee to hear about social prescribing

Mr Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, visited The Crescent in Dundee today (Tuesday, 8 March) to hear about the impact of the Sources of Support (SOS) social prescribing scheme on the wellbeing and mental health of the people of Dundee.

The integration of health and social care has resulted in a partnership approach to how best link patients and clients to services and activities delivered locally. In social prescribing GPs can, in addition to the medical service they provide, refer patients to link workers who support patients to access community activities such as physical activity, learning new skills, volunteering, art therapy, befriending and self-help. This has resulted in better relationships between services and local people and increased the uptake of services from harder to reach individuals.

Mr Hepburn was welcomed to the centre by NHS Tayside Chief Executive Lesley McLay and Dr Karen Adam, Consultant in Public Health Medicine. The Minister then met with local GPs, SOS Link workers and SOS patients to hear firsthand about the ongoing work of the Sources of Support social prescribing scheme as part of the national Link Worker Programme and the positive impact the scheme has had locally. Mr Hepburn also heard about a range of support services and initiatives that patients and clients can be signposted to.

Mr Hepburn said, “I’m pleased to be invited to visit The Crescent, meet its staff and service users and hear about the valuable work being done in NHS Tayside to support the national mental health improvement agenda.

“Mental health is an absolute priority for this Government. We know that mental illness is one of the top public health challenges in Europe and it’s estimated that mental health disorders affect more than a third of the population every year.

“The Links Worker programme is right on the front line of the battle against health inequalities. This is about giving people an extra helping hand to address the problems that are making them feel unwell.

“We know that people who are living in deprived and challenging circumstances are more likely to experience mental health problems, and are more likely to use acute and emergency hospital services.  By helping them to deal with some of the problems they’re facing, the Link Workers can support them to live more fulfilled lives, with less chance of illness further down the road.”

Dr Adam Consultant in Public Health Medicine said, “Social prescribing recognises the influence of social, economic and cultural factors on mental wellbeing as well as improving access to mainstream services and opportunities for people with long term physical or mental health problems.

“The Sources of Support social prescribing scheme gives comprehensive support in addition to what a GP can offer to help people make positive choices for their health. It can also be used as a preventative measure for people with non-clinical worries or concerns to avoid them becoming unwell in the first place.”

Complementing the social prescribing scheme is the wider work of Equally Well which was rolled out to targeted communities in Dundee. The Equally Well Team provides support for service providers to change ways of working to better address the root causes of poor mental wellbeing and health inequalities through holding community-based outreach events to engage with and share information about services. The team also developed the My Wellbeing webpage on the Dundee City Council website which supports local people and professionals to identify and activities that can help address inequality issues.

Contact:

Anna Michie

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 424138