Wellbeing While Waiting: Effectiveness and implementation of youth social prescribing for young people awaiting CAMHS support.

In 30 seconds

This multi-site, non-randomised controlled trial within a hybrid implementation-effectiveness evaluation assessed social prescribing for 11–18-year-olds awaiting support across 11 CAMHS in England. Among 558 participants, social prescribing was associated with significant improvements over six months in total emotional and behavioural difficulties, prosocial behaviour and resilience compared with usual care. Improvements in overall difficulties were driven by reductions in conduct difficulties, hyperactivity and peer problems. Anxiety and depression symptoms did not differ significantly between groups, and no intervention-related adverse events were observed.

Key findings

• Compared with usual care, social prescribing was associated with significant improvement in total emotional and behavioural difficulties over six months.
• Improvements in total difficulties were driven by reductions in conduct difficulties, hyperactivity and peer problems.
• Social prescribing was associated with significant improvements in prosocial behaviour and resilience, but not anxiety or depression symptoms.
• No intervention-related adverse events were observed; participants received an average of 5 Link Worker sessions.

Why it matters

Waiting for specialist mental health care can leave young people without structured support. These findings suggest a community-based approach may address behavioural, social and resilience-related needs during that interval, even when anxiety and depression symptoms do not improve relative to usual care. The distinction between these outcomes may help frame social prescribing as a potential adjunct rather than a substitute for symptom-focused treatment.

What to keep in mind

The trial was non-randomised, so differences between groups cannot be attributed to social prescribing with the certainty of a randomised comparison.