Social Prescribing Link Worker service for International Medical Graduates to celebrate National Social Prescribing Day

The Social Prescribing Link Worker service, delivered by the YOURhealth team within Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, is celebrating National Social Prescribing Day on Thursday 14 March by raising awareness and promoting the service in new and innovative ways. 

This is the only service of its kind that works with doctors in training, who are International Medical Graduates (IMGs). The service works by providing support and motivation aligned to the socio-economic and psycho-social needs of these trainees and their families.  

To celebrate National Social Prescribing Day on Thursday 14 March, the Social Prescribing team is launching two new initiatives. Designed to help promote the service and to increase engagement amongst this group by demonstrating how accessible and approachable both the team and the service is. Along with highlighting the benefits which can be experienced through accepting help and support. 

Trainees and their families can express feelings of isolation and this is what teams hope to address. To support trainees and their families, wanting to improve and increase their friendship networks and connections with others, the team will be launching an online group on National Social Prescribing Day. The aim of the group is to connect like-minded trainees/ and family members together, providing opportunities to share experiences and knowledge, to have fun and to reduce the feeling of isolation, which can be common amongst IMGs.  

Service users have been consulted ahead of the first session to get their input on how they would like the group to ‘look like’ and what they would require from it, including the time of day, duration and frequency. The overwhelming response received was the need to connect with others. There are plans for the group to be a regular get-together and to be ultimately led by trainees. 

In addition to this, the Social Prescribing team have developed the first in a series of podcasts which are aimed at trainees with the intention of ‘bringing to life’ what the team can offer and the positive impact this support can bring to trainees and their families. The podcast takes the form of an informal conversation between Social Prescribing Link Workers and will include testimonials and feedback from service users, as well as providing an opportunity for trainees to be introduced to the team and to understand how the service works. The podcast will be available online from 14 March. 

Ryan Nicholls, Team Leader at YOURhealth, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said: 

‘’We are really pleased to have found that the service is having a positive impact on the trainees and their families entering the UK. We anticipate that the need for link worker support will grow as a result of such factors as the cost of living and NHS staff shortages.”