Social Prescribing Policy, Research and Practice

• An international perspective on social prescribing: introduction
• The role of social prescribing in addressing health inequalities
• Implementing social prescribing schemes
• Conclusion: The present and future of social prescribing

Social Prescribing Policy, Research and Practice: Transforming Systems and Communities for Improved Health and Wellbeing encapsulates the wide-ranging evidence on social prescribing in a single volume. The book should appeal to a broad and diverse audience including researchers interested in the evaluation and effective design and implementation of social prescribing and community health intervention more generally; researchers and commissioners of public health interventions; healthcare professionals involved in the development of health interventions in primary, secondary and tertiary care; the local health economy which includes local government departments (e.g., public health, housing, employment, social services); professionals working in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector; policy makers; and university students (including medical students).

Marcello Bertotti, PhD is a reader in community health and deputy director of the Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London in England. He has 20 years of work experience in the research and evaluation of community health interventions, social enterprise, asset-based approaches to health, and social prescribing. Marcello has led research projects for a range of national (e.g., NHS), regional (Greater London Authority) and local government (Redbridge council) institutions as well as UK research councils (NIHR, ESRC, AHRC) and is now leading the evaluation of a major European Commission-funded project using a social prescribing model to support young people in Italy and Portugal.

Marcello has used a range of methodologies and approaches to evaluation including realist evaluation, social network analysis, asset mapping and used approaches to systematic reviews including meta-narrative and systematic mapping to study health interventions and communities. He is a co-founder of the international social prescribing network and of the social prescribing youth network. He also co-designed and co-delivered an accredited Level 3 certificate in social prescribing.