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Information prescriptions

Information prescriptions will guide people to relevant and reliable sources of information to enable them to feel more in control and better able to manage their condition and maintain their independence.

White Paper commitment

The White Paper 'Our health, our care, our say', published in January 2006, made a commitment to improving access to appropriate information for people with health or social care needs. The White Paper states:

5.24 …We propose that services give all people with long-term health and social care needs and their carers an ‘information prescription’. The information prescription will be given to people using services and their carers by health and social care professionals (for example GPs, social workers and district nurses) to signpost people to further information and advice to help them take care of their own condition.
5.25  By 2008, we would expect everyone with a long-term condition and/or long-term need for support – and their carers – to routinely receive information about their condition and, where they can, to receive peer and other self care support through networks.

What is an information prescription?

Information prescriptions point people to sources of information about their health and care – for example information about conditions and treatments, care services, benefits, and support groups. They include addresses, telephone numbers and website addresses that people may find helpful and where they can go to find out more. The information prescription will be given to people and their carers by health and social care professionals (for example GPs, social workers and district nurses).

Pilots were conducted throughout 2007 and have informed the design and delivery of information prescriptions, and provided evidence of their effectiveness and their impact on the public, professionals and organisations.

Implementation

During 2008, NHS and social care organisations will want to consider how to implement information prescriptions using the learning from the piloting programme.

There is an online resource to help organisations implement, and this outlines the different models of delivery through case studies and practical templates from the 20 pilot sites. To visit the resource, click on the link on the right under the related links section.

NHS Choices website provides national support for professionals and self-prescribing. Information prescriptions can be created and printed as part of the NHS Guides series within the Health A-Z section. Currently, information prescriptions are available via NHS Choices for six of the most common long-term conditions (asthma, stroke, diabetes, dementia, depression, coronary heart disease). More conditions will be added during 2008 and 2009.

Ultimately, all sources of information on information prescriptions will be quality assured through the information accreditation scheme.

Hard copy support materials

Many support documents can be downloaded from the information prescriptions online resource. However, hard copies of support materials may be ordered free of charge (see our ‘Ordering publications’ page), using these product codes:

Considering implementation:
Information prescriptions summary of final report (see the Reports section below for downloadable pdf version): 288510
Information prescriptions online resource pack overview document (can be downloaded in section below): 288509

Promotional materials:

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