Warwickshire County Council is celebrating the impact of projects set up to maintain the health of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic – and is calling for residents across the county to do ...
Warwickshire County Council is celebrating the impact of projects set up to maintain the health of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic – and is calling for residents across the county to do the same for International Social Prescribing Day (18 March 2021).
Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other health and social care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing. Services can range from activity groups, debt management advice to employability skills and volunteering.
The day provides an opportunity to shine a light on and celebrate the work that has been taking place, and its heightened importance over the past year since the pandemic began.
In Warwickshire, the county council commissioned a programme of creative arts projects aimed to support residents’ health and wellbeing during the pandemic. The programme worked with eight artistic projects offering a variety of interventions to people across the county including arts and clay packs to the clinically vulnerable, a singing for lung health pilot, online music sessions for older people in care homes, creative writing workshops for adults, on-line theatre and puppet workshops for young people. The success of these has led to new commissioned services in creative health for arts and nature.
Cllr Les Caborn, the council’s Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Health, said: “Across Warwickshire social prescribers are working to provide valuable social, emotional and practical support to people to help them be as safe and well as possible. The devastating impact of the pandemic on our physical as well our mental health, regardless of age or demographic, means that social prescribing is more important than ever. This is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the huge efforts of all those individuals who have made a real difference to people’s lives.”
International #SocialPrescribingDay 2021 aims to celebrate projects set up to maintain the health of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the council is urging residents across Warwickshire to take part.
Anyone who has set up a project or knows someone who has been benefitting from an online social prescribing initiative during the pandemic, can join the council on Thursday 18 March on social media using #SocialPrescribingDay and #BestWarwickshire to share their stories and share how social prescribing has kept communities connected, healthy, and engaged in Warwickshire during a global crisis.
For more information visit: https://www.socialprescribingnetwork.com/socialprescribingday