Community mapping with older people in a Scottish rural area: implications for social prescribing

Purpose Social prescribing is reported to be less effective in rural than urban areas due to the lack of anchor organisations and fewer activities being available. We explore this by presenting a case study of community mapping within an IMPACT Facilitator project exploring loneliness with older people in a rural area of Scotland. Design/methodology/approach IMPACT is the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care. Its Facilitator projects engage with people who access services, family carers and practitioners to support an area of local change that also has national significance. This project adopted a participative community mapping (PCM) approach, using ethnographic methods to explore communities in more depth, and meet older people and the practitioners and volunteers who worked with them in a range of venues. We held focus groups and a world cafe to share findings and agree recommendations. Findings PCM highlighted new activities beyond those identified in desk-based research. We found that some people and places acted as “mini anchors” in smaller isolated communities. Importantly, engaging with older directly in their community led to a deeper understanding of what they valued about these resources, and what they might wish for in the future. A weakness of PCM is that it is time intensive, however, if we wish to increase the effectiveness of social prescribing in rural areas then it might be time well spent. Originality/value This article provides a unique insight into how PCM might address some of the challenges that rural areas present to social prescribing.