Recording : Webinar-Workshop – Understanding social welfare advice issues for General Practice teams
The recording covers:
Webinar-Workshop – Understanding social welfare advice issues for General Practice teams
“Why treat people only to send them back to the conditions that made them sick in the first place?” Professor Michael Marmot
Webinar-Workshops delivered by Bromley by Bow Health and Island Advice Centre
Background
- Studies show that one in five consultations in General Practice are driven by a social need, this is possibly as high as two in five in deprived communities.
- London’s social prescribing link workers say that 50% of patients referred to them need social welfare advice. They estimate that 40% of patients they see are struggling to afford food and don’t have enough money to adequately heat their homes.
- General Practitioners in deprived communities often spend several hours a week writing letters for patients to support them with such issues
- Studies show there is a strong correlation (in both directions), between health conditions and outcomes and the issues that social welfare advice can support with.
- Those that have health issues, long term health conditions and disabilities often require welfare advice and support accessing social care packages, (e.g. those with health issues that mean they have to stop work)
- Those with poor social determinants of health, such as living in poverty, including food and fuel poverty, in poor quality or overcrowded housing are more likely to develop long term health conditions and find it harder to manage them
- Those with unmanageable debt are more likely to develop mental health issues, while those with mental health issues are more likely to develop debt issues.
The Webinar-Workshop will support the development of personalised care in your General Practice
- Increase awareness of the impact of the social determinants of health, and social welfare issues on patient health outcomes
- Developing a personalised care and holistic approach to meeting patient population needs
- How to understand if your patient might have an issues that could be supported through social welfare advice
The Webinar-Workshop covers:
- A brief overview of what the welfare benefits system is and the types welfare benefits
- A brief overview of health and disability related benefits
- Brief overview of the process to qualify for disability benefit, including medical evidence requirements, (fit notes), assessment and descriptor, and the review and appeal process
- What GPs can do in terms of providing evidence, including what is useful and not so useful in terms of medical evidence, e.g. misunderstandings around medical priority