Making social prescribing and community activities accessible to people living with severe mental illnesses

About the study

People with severe mental illnesses which includes bipolar disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder die up to 20 years earlier from heart attacks and strokes than people without severe mental illnesses. Reasons include stress, loneliness, not being supported to have a healthy lifestyle and not being able to access health services. New ways of supporting people are therefore needed.
Social prescribing involves a health professional (usually a doctor) referring a patient to someone called a link worker who then works with the person to identify community activities that they would like to take part in to support their health and wellbeing. The activities could include things like arts, community gardening, employment advice, benefits and debt advice, volunteering, sports, exercise groups and leisure activities.

We want to understand your views and experiences of taking part in social prescribing and
community activities and any difficulties you might have in taking part in these activities.

If you have not taken part in social prescribing or community activities, we would still like to hear from you to understand why. We would also like to get your views on whether there is anything that could help you to access these activities.

This study will help us to understand how best to support people with severe mental illnesses to take part in social prescribing and community activities to improve their health and wellbeing.

What will it involve?

You will be asked to complete a written consent form and take part in an interview with a researcher. The interview will be over the telephone, on a video call or in-person. The interview will last up to 45 minutes. You will be sent a £10 gift voucher to thank you for your time.