Job responsibilities
Job Purpose:
The main purpose of this post is to deliver a Social
Prescribing Service to support patients by providing holistic assessments with
the aim of improving their health and wellbeing.
Social Prescribing empowers people to take control of their
health and wellbeing through referral to non-medical link workers who can take
a holistic approach to someones overall health. They connect people to
community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.
Social Prescribing can help to strengthen community
resilience and personal resilience and reduces inequalities by addressing the
wider determinants of health, such as debt, poor housing and physical activity
and by increasing peoples active involvement with their local communities. It
works particularly well for people with long term conditions, for people who
are lonely or isolated or have complex social needs which affect their
wellbeing.
Main Duties
Provide Personalised Support:
Meet people on a one-to-one basis either within the Practice
or making home visits where appropriate within line with local policies and
procedures or by telephone consultation.
Be a friendly source of information about wellbeing and
preventative approaches.
Provide people with continuity, remaining the point of
contact throughout the social prescription.
Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their
health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, social isolation or caring
responsibilities.
Work with the person, their families and carers and consider
how they can all be supported through social prescribing.
Help people maintain or regain independence through living
skills, adaptions, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.
Work with individuals to produce a simple personal support
plan based on their priorities, interests and motivation.
Offer ongoing emotional support and signposting to people
which will include those experiencing low level poor mental health.
Promoting social prescribing and its role in
self-management.
Help to develop the Practice Teams knowledge on how to
identify individuals suitable for a social prescribing referral.
Build relationships with key staff across the Practice,
attending relevant meetings and becoming part of the wider network team.
Be proactive with developing strong links with all local
agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in
the service to make an appropriate referral.
Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting
with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory
agencies may find hard to reach.
Support Community Groups and Voluntary Organisations.
All Post Holders are expected to:
Adhere to Practice policies and procedures.
Adhere to data protection regulations, data sharing and
respecting confidentiality of patients, colleagues and the Primary Care
Network.
Undertake a Disclosures and Barring Service (DBS)
application.
Be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children, young people and vulnerable adults.
Maintain personal and professional development to maintain
their skills.
Promote equality and diversity in a non-discriminatory way.
Confidentiality:
In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us
with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health
and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that
staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
In the performance of the duties outlined in this job
description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information
relating to patients and their carers, Practice staff and other Healthcare
workers. They may also have access to information relating to the Practice as a
business. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly
confidential.
Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other
healthcare workers or the business of the Practice may only be divulged to
authorised persons.
Health & Safety:
It is the responsibility of all employees to ensure that
they comply with the requirements of the Health & Safety at Work Act. Safe
working practices are adhered to, and any hazards are reported to the
appropriate line manager immediately. Familiarisations with all health &
safety policies within the Practices are key.
Equality and Diversity:
The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and
rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples
rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with policies and current
legislation.
Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of
patients, carers and colleagues.
Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the
individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings
priorities and rights.
Personal/Professional development:
The post-holder will participate in any training programme
implemented by the Practice as part of this employment, with such training to
include:
Participation in an annual individual performance review,
including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or
professional development
Taking responsibility for own development, learning and
performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are
undertaking similar work
Quality:
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the
Practice, and will:
Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
Assess own performance and take accountability for own
actions, either directly or under supervision.
Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on
own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance
the teams performance.
Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet
patients needs.
Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.