Social prescribing may still sound obscure, but a service in Byker and Heaton has "transformed the lives" of people with a range of health and wellbeing issues over the past few months.
The idea is that social prescribers are link workers based at GPs' practices who patients may not know they can turn to. Tracy Bell is one such worker - based at Heaton Road surgery. Her job is to pick up cases that might not be medical issues but relate to the wellbeing of patients in the area, whether that involves helping someone battle housing issues or giving someone a lift to their hospital appointment.
By working to improve people's lives in a holistic manner, Tracy's work takes some of the strain off medics at the practice, but she works closely with them to ensure people get all of the support they need. One way she does this is by running a healthy eating class each week at St Silas Church in Byker.
