Genevieve A Dingle, Leah S Sharman, Shaun Hayes, Catherine Haslam, Tegan Cruwys, Jolanda Jetten, S Alexander Haslam, Niamh McNamara, David Chua, James R Baker, Tracey Johnson
INTRODUCTION: There have been few controlled evaluations of Social Prescribing (SP), in which link workers support lonely individuals to engage with community-based social activities. This study reports early outcomes of a trial comparing General Practitioner treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU combined with Social Prescribing (SP) in adults experiencing loneliness in Queensland. METHODS: Participants were 114 individuals who were non-randomly assigned to one of two conditions (SP, n = 63; TAU, n = 51) and assessed at baseline and 8 weeks, on primary outcomes (loneliness, well-being, health service use in past 2 months) and secondary outcomes (social anxiety, psychological distress, social trust)...
2024: Frontiers in Psychology