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Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes

OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to review, and qualitatively evaluate, the aims and measures of social referral programmes. Our first objective is to identify the aims of social referral initiatives. Our second objective is to identify the measures used to evaluate whether the aims of social referral were met...

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Autores principales: Rempel, Emily S, Wilson, Emma N, Durrant, Hannah, Barnett, Julie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5652530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29025843
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017734
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author Rempel, Emily S
Wilson, Emma N
Durrant, Hannah
Barnett, Julie
author_facet Rempel, Emily S
Wilson, Emma N
Durrant, Hannah
Barnett, Julie
author_sort Rempel, Emily S
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to review, and qualitatively evaluate, the aims and measures of social referral programmes. Our first objective is to identify the aims of social referral initiatives. Our second objective is to identify the measures used to evaluate whether the aims of social referral were met. DESIGN: Literature review. BACKGROUND: Social referral programmes, also called social prescribing and emergency case referral, link primary and secondary healthcare with community services, often under the guise of decreasing health system costs. METHOD: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we undertook a literature review to address that aim. We searched in five academic online databases and in one online non-academic search engine, including both academic and grey literature, for articles referring to ‘social prescribing’ or ‘community referral’. RESULTS: We identified 41 relevant articles and reports. After extracting the aims, measures and type of study, we found that most social referral programmes aimed to address a wide variety of system and individual health problems. This included cost savings, resource reallocation and improved mental, physical and social well-being. Across the 41 studies and reports, there were 154 different kinds of measures or methods of evaluation identified. Of these, the most commonly used individual measure was the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, used in nine studies and reports. CONCLUSIONS: These inconsistencies in aims and measures used pose serious problems when social prescribing and other referral programmes are often advertised as a solution to health services-budgeting constraints, as well as a range of chronic mental and physical health conditions. We recommend researchers and local community organisers alike to critically evaluate for whom, where and why their social referral programmes ‘work’.
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spelling pubmed-56525302017-10-27 Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes Rempel, Emily S Wilson, Emma N Durrant, Hannah Barnett, Julie BMJ Open Health Services Research OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to review, and qualitatively evaluate, the aims and measures of social referral programmes. Our first objective is to identify the aims of social referral initiatives. Our second objective is to identify the measures used to evaluate whether the aims of social referral were met. DESIGN: Literature review. BACKGROUND: Social referral programmes, also called social prescribing and emergency case referral, link primary and secondary healthcare with community services, often under the guise of decreasing health system costs. METHOD: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we undertook a literature review to address that aim. We searched in five academic online databases and in one online non-academic search engine, including both academic and grey literature, for articles referring to ‘social prescribing’ or ‘community referral’. RESULTS: We identified 41 relevant articles and reports. After extracting the aims, measures and type of study, we found that most social referral programmes aimed to address a wide variety of system and individual health problems. This included cost savings, resource reallocation and improved mental, physical and social well-being. Across the 41 studies and reports, there were 154 different kinds of measures or methods of evaluation identified. Of these, the most commonly used individual measure was the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, used in nine studies and reports. CONCLUSIONS: These inconsistencies in aims and measures used pose serious problems when social prescribing and other referral programmes are often advertised as a solution to health services-budgeting constraints, as well as a range of chronic mental and physical health conditions. We recommend researchers and local community organisers alike to critically evaluate for whom, where and why their social referral programmes ‘work’. BMJ Publishing Group 2017-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5652530/ /pubmed/29025843 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017734 Text en © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Health Services Research
Rempel, Emily S
Wilson, Emma N
Durrant, Hannah
Barnett, Julie
Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title_full Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title_fullStr Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title_full_unstemmed Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title_short Preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
title_sort preparing the prescription: a review of the aim and measurement of social referral programmes
topic Health Services Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5652530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29025843
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017734
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