Can social prescribing put the 'social' into the biopsychosocial management of people with long-term musculoskeletal disorders?

Background: Chronic musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are a significant burden on individuals' quality of life and society and are made more complex by the presence of multimorbidity. It is recommended that interventions targeting MSD be sustainable, equitable and incorporate the biopsychosocial model of care (BPS).

Aims: A criticism of the BPS approach is that the social component of this model is not addressed adequately during the management of people with long-term MSD and that a gap exists between theory and implementation. The use of social prescribing (SP) as an intervention to bridge this gap is discussed.

Results and discussion: Social prescribing is a holistic non-medical person-centered approach to well-being that utilizes link workers (LW) to support individuals with long-term conditions (LTC) in the community. Social prescribing referrals are received from primary healthcare practitioners to LW and range from light touch signposting for employment or financial advice to more intensive support for LTC such as obesity, decreased physical activity and mental health needs.

Conclusion: There is evidence to suggest that SP interventions are effective in the management of LTC; however, due to the paucity of high-quality evidence, it is difficult to be conclusive. Large-scale randomised controlled trials are recommended to support the use of SP interventions in the management of LTC.