ASPIRE Social Prescribing Day
Inala Primary Care commemorates Australian Social Prescribing Institute of Research and Education (ASPIRE) who today are proudly celebrating World Social Prescribing Day March 14th 2024 with the release of a ground-breaking Consensus Statement on the way forward for this critical health measure in Australia.
We need to accelerate the rollout of social prescribing to promote better health and better wellbeing for all people, and to improve the relevance and responsiveness of our care systems.
The statement sets out a clear and affordable blueprint for the Federal Government to meet the community’s expectation that health and community services should be better connected for better health and wellbeing. Implementation of the blueprint would include:
- Inclusion of personalised care plans in the national health system to encourage general practices to look at the underlying causes of ill health every time they see a patient
- Support for practices to connect people to non-medical community services and programs to empower and support them to better manage their health and wellbeing,such as service directories of community assets and tools to gauge needs.
- A network of local Link Workers to work alongside practices, people and community services and supports to connect care.
Local partnerships to co-design and tailor implementation to local community needs. - Increased funding for place-based community infrastructure
Social prescribing is cost effective, and it works. It gives individuals agency over their own healthcare by encouraging them to become more engaged with their community improving their physical and emotional health while reducing the burden on overstretched GP clinics and hospitals.
