CHOICES-HI: CHildren and young people’s Options In the Community for Enhancing wellbeing Support through Hospital-Initiated social prescribing.  

Children and young people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes are more likely to experience mental health difficulties, especially in the first year after diagnosis. This can happen because managing diabetes can disrupt everyday life, friendships, and emotional wellbeing.

Although hospitals often provide mental health support, this is usually offered after problems have already developed, rather than helping to prevent them early on. This can place added strain on young people, their families, and healthcare services.

There is growing interest in social prescribing – connecting people to community-based activities like sports, arts, or peer support – as a way to improve wellbeing. However, this approach is not yet widely used or well understood in hospital care for young people with diabetes.

What is the project doing?

This project is preparing for a future study to test whether social prescribing can better support young people with diabetes. 

Over 12 months, the project will: 

• Review current support: Look at what help is already offered to young people with diabetes across different hospitals and national guidelines  
• Explore social prescribing in hospitals: Work out how link workers (people who connect patients to community support) could be introduced, where they would be based, how they would be trained, and what it would cost  
• Identify what success looks like: Speak with young people, families, healthcare staff, and service funders to understand which outcomes matter most  
• Design a future study: Decide how to test social prescribing properly; for example, whether to compare it with usual care in a clinical trial  

The project uses a mix of interviews, group discussions, and existing research, and involves collaboration with hospital teams and young people themselves. 

What does the project hope to acheive?

This project aims to lay the groundwork for a larger study that will test whether hospital-based social prescribing:

• Improves mental health and wellbeing for young people with diabetes
• Helps prevent problems before they develop
• Offers good value for money for healthcare services

If successful, this research could lead to:

• Earlier and more preventative support for young people with long-term conditions
• New ways of integrating community-based support into hospital care
• Better outcomes for patients and more efficient use of healthcare resources

The findings will be shared with healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers to help improve services nationally.