Social Prescribing Training workshops on Compassion

This project takes a close look at ‘compassion’ – an often misunderstood concept that is confused with a single emotion, rather than being multidimensional (Kirby et al., 2017). A more comprehensive description of compassion suggests it has four key components:  awareness of suffering, sympathetic concern for suffering, the desire to relieve the suffering, and a motivation to help relieve the suffering (Jazaieri et al., 2013).  

Social prescribing aims to help people make positive changes in their lives by creating networks and links between individuals, groups, and public services (Thomas et al., 2019). This is in stark contrast to what we usually think of when we hear the term ‘prescribing’. The social model of health has gained much traction over the years, and social prescribers encourage people to seek out and spend their time with people who matter to them and connect with the things that matter to them, thus promoting agency, relational belonging, and increased wellbeing. However, for social prescribing to have credibility, prescribers must prescribe with compassion, and ‘compassion’ is identified as one of the five main learning needs of social prescribers.  

This exploratory project will gain insight into the nature and application of compassion in a social prescribing setting, in order to develop a training workshop on compassion for social prescribers. First, the researchers will scope out the existing literature on compassion amongst healthcare providers and identify any gaps in current knowledge. Next, the researchers will interview a selection of social prescribers to understand their awareness and application of compassion. In light of their responses, the team will create training materials to enhance the wellbeing and practice of the social prescribing workforce, which will, in turn, enhance the wellbeing of those on the receiving end of compassionate social prescriptions.