Link workers for social prescribing: the inverse care law and identifying areas of higher need

In this episode, we talk to Dr Anna Wilding, a Research Fellow based at Health Organisation, Policy and Economics at the University of Manchester. 

Title of paper: Geographic inequalities in need and provision of social prescribing link workers

Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2023.0602

Social prescribing link workers were proposed in the 2019 NHS Long Term Plan to address health inequalities. Using national administrative data, we find that the subsequent roll-out of link workers has not been sufficiently targeted at areas of highest need. Higher need areas require additional support for employing link workers to tackle health inequalities and better support population needs.