Patient buy-in to social prescribing through link workers as part of person-centred care: a realist evaluation

BACKGROUND: Social prescribing link workers have become part of primary health care in recent years. They help patients to recognise non-medical factors affecting their health and identify sources of support, often in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. They form part of wider work to strengthen person-centred care, which actively seeks to engage individuals in decision-making about their health, taking into account their medical, social, psychological, financial and spiritual circumstances. 

OBJECTIVE: To understand how buy-in to social prescribing and the link worker role is established for a patient, and how this relates to person-centred care. 

DESIGN: A realist evaluation. SETTING: Patients engaging with link workers in seven different parts of England were involved. 

METHODS: As part of data collection, we observed link workers interacting with 35 patients. We also interviewed 61 patients and re-interviewed 41 of them 9-12 months later. Data were coded and developed into context-mechanism-outcome configurations, which were used to produce a programme theory. 

RESULTS: Data highlighted how patients might be uncertain about the link worker role but agree to a referral as they sought assistance with their non-medical issues. Patients talked about experiencing a sense of hope through the trust they developed in a link worker. This trust was established through the communication skills and knowledge demonstrated by a link worker, and by their ability to act as an anchor point when required - a reliable, consistent source of support to whom patients could offload. The link worker role also involved connecting patients to external support, which called for sensitivity around how ready someone was to move forward; this was shaped by a patient's motivation but also their capacity to make changes given other demands in their life. Connecting patients to external support could be affected by structural factors outside the link workers' control (e.g. housing options or employment opportunities). 

LIMITATIONS: We did not interview patients who had rejected the offer of social prescribing, and most had a positive view of meeting with a link worker. 

CONCLUSIONS: Person-centred care is engendered by link workers through their skills, knowledge and ability to respond to the individual readiness of patients to engage with external support. It can be curtailed by structural factors outside link workers' sphere of control, such as access to housing or caring responsibilities of patients. This can hinder patients' ability to 'connect to', leaving link workers to continue 'connecting with' patients as they act as an anchor point. 

FUTURE WORK: Exploration is required of factors affecting patients who interact with a link worker but do not access external support. Longitudinal work with a cohort of patients, speaking to them on a regular basis, may provide further understanding in this respect.