Social prescribing link workers, health and well-being coaches and care coordinators

The NHS recently introduced three new Primary Care roles to support patients:

Social Prescribing Link Workers

As you’ve already heard, social prescribing link workers support you to consider your wider well-being needs. They take a whole person approach to your health and wellbeing, giving you time to focus on ‘what matters to you’. This can include shared decision making and/or personalised care and support planning which we will cover next week. The link worker then links you into community groups and other services for any practical and emotional support, where it exists, in your local area.

Care coordinators 

Care coordinators play an important role within GP surgeries. Their roles does what it says on the tin! They help coordinate and navigate your care. They can support you to develop your personalised care and support plans and to prepare for shared decision making (SDM) conversations. They can also connect you to other support or services as well as following up hospital appointments or finding out what’s happened to a referral. 

Health and well-being coaches

Health and well-being Coaches can help you become more active in looking after your health and well-being by making changes in your life. They can help you find your motivation and support you to do things differently. For example, they can work with you to get fit before surgery or consider how you can eat more healthily. They also have an important role to play in supporting groups of people to come together in peer support groups. We’ll talk more about that in Step Two.