Aim:

to make a social prescribing (SP) diagnosis in the region of Aragon from professionals’ narrative to identify benefits and barriers in the implementation of SP in primary care teams.

Methods:

study with qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with primary care professionals involved in SP. Intentional sampling was performed, selecting nine professionals with experience in formal SP. They are representative in terms of different professional categories, healthcare sectors and workplace (rural or urban). The analysis was performed iteratively using MaxQDA software. Emerging categories were coded and data were triangulated.

Results:

topics related to seven categories emerged: the impact on daily work, use of available resources, programme extension, benefits and negative effects of SP, barriers to implementation and suggestions for improvement. They raised familiarity with the community network as an essential condition before devising any SP programme, to do so in an effective manner. To this end, they positively evaluate the tools provided by the Community Care Strategy in Primary Care, although they require some improvements to facilitate their use and not have an impact on the workload. The need for improved coordination with social work was demonstrated, as well as the unification of protocols that these professionals already use.

Conclusions:

SP is beneficial for both professionals and patients, as long as it is performed in a structured way with previous work with the community. The creation of support and training tools, as provided by the strategy, is deemed key.

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