ORCID

Abstract

Objective Social prescribing is a pathway that connects individuals to non-clinical services. It supports and addresses social needs, such as those related to loneliness, housing instability and mental health. Social Prescribing Europe (SP-EU), a European Union funded project, seeks to co-create an adaptation of the social prescribing pathway based on the needs of the following target groups: LGBTIQ+ people, refugees and first-generation immigrants, older people living alone. This adapted social prescribing pathway will be tested in a pragmatic randomised controlled trial (RCT) in ten hubs, covering eight countries, across Europe. The aim of this process evaluation is to explore the implementation of the SP-EU RCT social prescribing pathway, and the experiences of the link workers, general practitioners, intervention staff, and patients from the groups listed above in both the intervention and control groups. Methods We will adopt a convergent parallel mixed methods approach. Data will be reported using appropriate reporting guidelines. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected, analysed and integrated to examine levels of convergence, divergence, or complementarity. Discussion Overall, the findings from this process evaluation will contribute to the interpretation of the main SP-EU trial results. More generally, it will add to our understanding of how social prescribing pathways may be used to engage people in vulnerable situations in activities that have the potential to increase health and wellbeing across a European context. The results will feed into a research policy document on social health care intervention RCTs in primary care across Europe.

Publication Date

2026-08-11

Publication Title

Mental Health and Prevention

Volume

43

ISSN

2212-6570

Acceptance Date

2026-08-06

Deposit Date

2026-08-12

Funding

Funded by the European Union (101155873). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South West Peninsula. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), contract number 24.00634.

Keywords

Social Prescribing, Mental health prevention, Process Evaluation, Protocol, Social Determinants of Health, RCT

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Download

Share

COinS