In recent years it has been reported that children and young people are suffering much worse mental health issues, and the need for help is outstripping the availability of mental health support currently. In April 2023 Meaningful Measures completed an evaluation of the Battersea Youth Clinic, a social prescribing service for young people aged 15-25 years old.

Here at Meaningful Measures, we were delighted to work with Dr Amy Vowler who is the Clinical Lead for Battersea Youth Clinic (GP Battersea Fields Practice) and Dr Mohan Sekeram (GP Principal Merton, Person Centred Care and Clinical Lead for Social Prescribing in Wandsworth and Merton Borough, Sout West London Clinical Lead Personalised Care) a key innovator in the Social Prescribing world.

Battersea Youth Clinic aims to build up the relationship between GPs and young people in Wandsworth, by increasing the number of young people who are registered with a GP. This innovative approach uses the GP as a community asset to look after young people's health and wellbeing needs. For example, this model enabled young people to access Battersea Youth Clinic by avoiding crossing gang lines and via a consultation method appropriate to their needs e.g via phone, video or face-to-face consultation.

Children and young people have been recipients of social prescribing in this project since February 2021. Some key facts:

• 15.4 yrs - Average age of service users
• 55% of referrals to the Battersea Youth Clinic were for mental health issues
• Mental health of service users was significantly lower than population averages monitored via ONS 4
• 5.22 - Average number of social prescription referrals to local providers
• 63%- had a good or excellent experience of the service.
• Much greater representation of minority ethnic groups for Battersea Youth Clinic services users, compared to 2021 census data.

Much implementation learning was collated including using a triage approach to ensure appropriate referral boundaries, and the development of dual role link workers (CYP and adult) to enable more efficient use of their time.

"It's fantastic to see social prescribing supporting children and young people - the Battersea model provides a wonderful exemplar for SWL. Mental health is such an important issue and this service provides a wonderful opportunity to capture and support. Fabulous." - Dr Mohan Sekeram

You can read more about the Battersea Youth Clinic evaluation findings, details of the model developed, and the recommendations for future evolution in the full report.

Thanks to Dr Amy Vowler, and Dr Mohan Sekeram for their support and input, and thank you to Abby Sabbey, subcontractor for Meaningful Measures, for her analysis work on the report.