BBBC Social Prescribing interview with Tarana

Ahead of #SocialPrescribingDay, the BBBC Insights team has caught up last week with Tarana, who has benefited from the Centre’s social prescribing scheme.

You can find out more about the service here

BBBC Insights team: How did your social prescribing link worker support you? What was good about it?

Tarana: I would have to say the support and understanding of my situation were greatly appreciated. I had two and with both, I felt the support and concern were tackled delicately in regards to what I wanted. Having the link worker change, still made me feel at ease as I didn’t have to explain myself so much and was immediately picked up with what I needed support with the most without having to explain myself so much.

How did social prescribing impact your life?

Everyone has a beginning point in the change in their life. For me, that was social prescribing. I honestly wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the social prescribing. It’s a team effort of wanting to change and getting the support to change and social prescribing has helped me throughout my development.

What were the benefits to your health and well-being?

As someone who is living with a long term physical health condition, wanting the need to change my environment was instilled on me for a while as I knew that nothing would be the same without it. My health and well-being has been tackled with a lot of care and I still have this condition which is a part of my life. Knowing this I feel the benefit of having that continuous support from my health professionals as well as my community. My outlook on life has always been a positive driven mind and I feel that this has definitely fuelled my ambition to always do my best and improve where I can.

Would you recommend social prescribing to others?

Definitely. I think that social prescribing is like the underdog of the health services, like many others, it is not known to many people. I feel that the service is always improving and becoming even more open in this situation. It’s definitely something that I would recommend to anyone who is looking to improve on themselves or looking for support for their health and well-being.

How do feel that social prescribing will now be available in NHS?

I think that it a great service and finally deserves that recognition. I know that many people would benefit from it just like I have and it being available in the NHS is something that I think would help others.

BBBC Insights provides training for Social Prescribing Link Workers to help developing this new service throughout the country. Learn more here