Additional Roles

Social Prescriber

Many things can affect our health and well-being which could include feeling isolated, lonely or stressed by work money and housing problems or living with a health condition.

Social prescribing helps people to improve their health, wellbeing and social welfare by connecting them to services and activities in their local community. This could include:

social activities
walking, well-being and fitness groups
parent support groups
arts, gardening and creative activities
employment and training support
housing and benefits support

Who is social prescribing for?

Social Prescribing is for anyone who would like to:

make positive changes to their life
improve social connections
feel more connected to the local community
get information and advice about housing, benefits, employment or training
live better with a health condition
improve health and well-being

How can social prescribing work for you?

Our social prescribing link workers will talk with you about what matters to you. They will help you to identify any issues and challenges that you would like to address and help connect you to services and local community activities that can support you.

Health and Wellbeing Coaches

Health and wellbeing coaches (HWBCs) will predominately use health coaching skills to support people to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their own health and wellbeing goals. Phil and Alicja can also provide access to self-management education, peer support and social prescribing.

Health coaches will support people to self-identify existing issues and encourage proactive prevention of new and existing illnesses. This approach is based on using strong communication and negotiation skills and supports personal choice and positive risk taking.

They will work alongside people to coach and motivate them through multiple sessions, supporting them to identify their needs, set goals, and help them to implement their personalised health and care plan.

Dietitian

Dietitians have a critical role to play in supporting patients with conditions relating to diet and nutrition. Our fully qualified Dietitians, Eve and Sarah and able to support patients with irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, coeliac and many other nutrition related conditions and symptoms.

Their skills and knowledge can help prevent worsening conditions and help patients maintain their healthy eating. Not only that but they can help manage patients on ACBS products and often reduce the need for referrals to secondary care and the need for hospitalisation.

First Contact Practitioners

Our musculoskeletal first contact practitioners are physiotherapists with enhanced skills. They can help patients with musculoskeletal issues such as back, neck and joint pain by:

assessing and diagnosing issues
giving expert advice on how best to manage their conditions
referring them onto specialist services if necessary.

Patients with back and joint pain, including conditions such as arthritis, will now be able to contact their local physiotherapist directly, rather than waiting to see a GP or being referred to hospital. Patients can also see a physiotherapist by speaking to the GP practice receptionist or by being referred by their GP.

By making it easier for patients to access physiotherapist, patients will have quicker access to diagnosis and treatment, helping them to manage their conditions more effectively and recover faster, so they can get back to normal life quickly.

Practice Clinical Pharmacists

Practice pharmacists are clinical pharmacists who have undertaken a four year master’s degree in pharmacy. Some have taken additional post-graduate training in independent prescribing and therefore are able to prescribe medication within their area of competence.

The role of the practice pharmacist is to carry out medication reviews and help make sure your medication is correct when you have been transferred from another setting or have had a recent hospital discharge. They can also help if you have any medication related queries or issues. If you would like to speak to a pharmacist, please contact the practice to arrange an appointment.