Joining up social prescribers, health services and VCSE organisations in Darlington

Darlington Connect is a busy town centre base which has been set up by key voluntary sector agencies and hosts a range of local organisations. The site offers mental health and wellbeing support to Darlington residents, including cost of living support.

Crucially, Darlington Connect have been closely linked with social prescribers, health services and the local authority from day one, and they have developed a robust referral network which enables them to refer widely but also for social prescribers to refer into Darlington Connect.?

Funding through the Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing Infrastructure Investment Programme has enabled them to engage a local VCSE organisation, Darlington Association on Disability (DAD), to help improve the accessibility of their support for disabled people. DAD are a user-led organisation and support people regardless of their impairment. They support people facing multiple barriers to access support including physical access, attitudes, accessible information and understanding of disability issues. This support is based on people’s specific needs, often including home visits and referrals to other VCSE organisations and statutory services.

One of the first tasks for DAD was to advise on accessibility for the Darlington Social Prescribing website with the aim of increasing self-referrals. Their work to reduce barriers for people to access social prescribing continued with the development of an outreach service for those who can’t access the town centre base. To date, DAD have supported 450 people as part of their outreach work.?

Lauren Robinson, Chief Executive at DAD, explains: “With this work we’re reaching people who were not previously supported. We often catch people when they are almost at crisis point, supporting them into statutory services and to access social prescribing. We can help prevent further crises and they know where they can come back to.”

You can find out more about Darlington Connect’s work on their Facebook page and more about Darlington Association on Disability on their website.? If you would like to know more about VONNE’s Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing programme you can access the webpage here and join the Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing Network to receive regular news and information.