Social Prescribing and Health Equity in Primary Care

The main focus of my PhD thesis is the Horizon Europe funded SP-EU project (https://social-prescribing.eu/). The aim of this international research project is to investigate whether social prescribing has the potential to improve access to healthcare for people in vulnerable situations.

Although the bio-psycho-social model of health is widely accepted in the medical community, primary care physicians often lack resources to address social, emotional, or practical factors that influence their patients’ wellbeing. Social prescribing addresses this gap by linking healthcare providers with non-medical professionals and support services and is therefore an innovative public health approach at the intersection of medical sciences and social work. However, its application for people in vulnerable situations has not been sufficiently investigated.

The SP-EU study focuses on three primary target groups: refugees and first-generation immigrants, LGBTIQ+ persons, and older adults living alone. The project involves three stages: co-creation, a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT), and a comparative qualitative study.

My personal role consists in contributing to the implementation of the pragmatic RCT in Switzerland, which is one of ten participating hubs. The design follows a so-called basket trial, involving one independent sub-trial per target group. Participants will be adults with at least one nonmedical, health-related social need. The objectif of the RCT will be to test the effectiveness of the adapted social prescribing model in improving access to health and social care.