What is Social Prescribing?

Social Prescribing is a process that enables health and social care professionals, community development workers and others to refer someone to a Social Prescribing Link Worker in order to talk about the issues they are facing and find the right services (often in their local area) to support and empower them. Social Prescribing Link Workers help address people’s needs across a number of areas including support with physical activity, diet and nutrition, housing, mental health and more. It is often referred to as a ‘more than medicine’ approach to health and wellbeing, based on the fact that the majority of long-term conditions can be prevented by lifestyle changes alone.

Yorkshire Youth and Music and Social Prescribing for Children and Young People

Social Prescribing is not a new phenomenon and many organisations within local communities exist across the country to support people with their physical and mental wellbeing. Yorkshire Youth and Music has always had a focus on improving the life chances of children in challenging circumstances, and many of our projects could be considered as a form of social prescribing for children in the Yorkshire region. Most of the children we work with are introduced to us through local councils and other local organisations who want to help the most challenged children growing up in our county.

Two of our projects that aim to provide support for young people with this ethos in mind are:

• Our Young People in Youth Justice settings project and
• Our Music and Mental Health project

Both projects provide physical and mental health related support via self expression through music and arts related activity. Children learn to voice their concerns and to build confidence in themselves through engaging and expressive projects. This is successful (sometimes where other approaches are not) in a number of ways, including allowing children to open up in ways that feel less threatening to them and building important life skills through musical progression and ability (such as taking turns, listening to others, looking after and sharing equipment, collaboration with peers and with supportive adults, and more).

Because we have extensive experience working with children in challenging circumstances, we have also created a range of musical resources to support the adults who work with these children. If you are a Social Prescribing Link Worker, or work with children in a range of support settings, please contact us to find out more. In the meantime, you can find some of these resources (available for free) on our YouTube channel: