Health Coaches and Social Prescribers- two amazing resources available for you- February 2026

[Bell] Welcome back to Coffee Break, the audio equivalent of finding out there's help that doesn't come in a box. This week we're talking about support that goes beyond prescriptions and blood tests. The kind of help that starts with, "Councils Going Home" and actually has time to listen. So we're joined by two people who do exactly that and they are our health coach and our social prescriber. They help patients with everything from feeling stuck or overwhelmed to making changes that finally feel doable. We talk about what health coaching and social prescribing really means, do it can help and why it's becoming such an important part of general practice. That's all in this week, Coffee Break. [Music] I'm Dr Jeff Hampe and I'm Dr Sam McGinley. And this is season one of Coffee Break. We are two general practitioners from beautiful dogs that are the United Kingdom and we are happy to have you here with us for another Coffee Break. In our show we give you helpful and useful health and wellness information in short and easily digestible episodes. And that's right and hopefully in a fun and enjoyable way as well. In today's VAR to see of health information, we hope to be your trusty island of reliable and impartial independent, unbiased information. And we may even have some guests with us to help. So sit back and enjoy. Hey Coffee Break. So today we are lucky enough to be joined by ZanCT, is our health and wellbeing coach. And we are really pleased to welcome you onto the show today. Thank you. It's great to be on and really exciting to have the opportunity to talk to you. About health coaching. Yes, locally Jeff and I as you know we work with you and we know that we've both had patients reviewed by you and supported by you. So we thought it was really good way of just introducing your role to a wider audience and help people to understand a bit more about what you can offer. Yeah, so the role basically is to help people to build skills and confidence and motivation to manage their own health and make sustainable lifestyle changes through supportive and person-centered conversation. So what is different is we offer longer sessions with patients around 45 minutes in length and up to six sessions in total. And we sort of think that we complement both the doctors and the nurses by helping people make changes that maybe medicine alone can't achieve. The difference they make is often quiet and maybe like I'd call cumulative, but for many clients it's the first time health care feels supportive and perhaps achievable for them. Part of the work that we do we use a coaching tool called a well-being star. And that's just something that we use and it's sort of a way of focusing on areas that may be open to change. And it gives the client a space to sort of take stock of their lives. And this helps maybe set personal goals. It helps them to develop like practical action plans and it builds confidence to manage symptoms and lifestyle changes. Yeah, that's really interesting. Thank you about the word achievable you used there actually. Often if I start to talk talk to a patient about some simple lifestyle things I can see them immediately often glazing over or panicking about how they're ever going to build that into what they consider to be there already full busy life. So that's great. The kind of in spending that time with them and digging deeper into their lives and then helping them to come and maybe almost re re-imagine their life I can see it being really helpful for them. Well, I have to say that the most often cited reason for sort of people feeling that they feel stuck is that they're too busy. I hear that time and time again in terms of the original reason they come to see me or just sort of going going through the sessions. But I think what happens is that people tend to overestimate the time that's needed to kick a new healthy lifestyle. And I think and this being a salient time of year with New Year's resolutions. I think people think too big. I think of a big goal. I'm going to run a marathon. I'm going to lose a big amount of weight. But it's manageable if it's taken in bike size realistic chunks. And I think that's sort of where coaching just comes into its own is to sort of say just these small goals are it just breaks it down. And then when they come back next time we can reassess so and that's I think the difference is just being coached through that process is where it's the kind of the goal dust really. It's a really interesting point is there because you mentioned people say they're too busy. Sometimes that's not just part of the ongoing issue, but actually that can be the trigger in the first place. You know we look at social media, we look at how goal orientated people are, how our lifestyle may now be changing to to be achieving in so many different spheres which in itself is a big stress. But then actually that then carries through in your too busy to actually make the change or to address the problem in the first place. But yeah, I think this this overwhelm that so many people feel in the complex lives that they're leading. It means that they can't see the wood for the trees and this is where we have these initial conversations when people come in and we sit down and we do take stock. And it's just the first session can be really powerful for people where somebody sat and listened to them and the number of apologies I get. I'm sorry you must think this and you know it's incredible that people have that chance to take stock and then we can pick things apart. But it's always this person centered approach where we ask these open questions that help them to explore what's going on and when it starts that process of kind of thinking of ways to like work on things. So it's just it's lovely to see the process unfold it really is. Yeah, sounds fascinating. We often think about health being diet excise, you mentioned New Year's resolutions, make those changes at this time of year. But there are other pillars as well as well being of health arm there. We've mentioned stress already. What are some of the other ones that you find yourselves focusing on with most of your clients? What's a common theme? Well, you're absolutely correct and there are five pillars of well being and they are absolutely vital that they are nourished and these pillars are healthy eating. They are regular exercise or movement because sometimes the word exercise can be a bit scary to people that are older. So I try and use the term movement really for them. So regular movement prioritising sleep absolutely essential. So important and then how we manage stress and also avoiding unhealthy habits which I class as things like excess alcohol smoking and eating excess junk food really. But I would say that you know that I think that poor mental health is such a common issue for so many of my clients. I like to kind of use this analogy and it's around a toolbox and I always think if we regularly work on our well being pillars and when life throws as difficulties and it will having these tools in the toolbox will help us cope. And it's about how we react to these stresses in life and it means that we're better equipped to deal with these stresses. But it's also introducing positive things such as self care and meditation and journaling and gratitude exercises. So I think that is so important for how we manage stress because that has such a big impact on our overall well being. We use this well being tool which is a star and it's quite a good visual tool for people to sort of see that themselves what areas to focus on. And if they see if stress and anxiety is playing a really huge part in it, then we start focusing in the sessions working on as to how we can introduce some routines around reducing stress. And of course, diet and what we eat can play into that and of course exercise is an incredible tool in helping with stress. So invariably the five pillars come in because they're all parts of managing a managing stress as well as lack of sleep as well. I mean, that's not good for our mental health and lots of people know they should be getting more than they do and it stresses them out when they can't sleep. So there's little ways I can coach around improving how to sort of routines to improve sleep as well. Yeah, be faster. It's given an example. Do you have any examples? Just in case someone's listening and thinking is this at the bed and just trying to give them that kind of a flavor of what you might sort of talk about. Yeah, it's funny actually because like a child needs a bedtime routine. Actually adults do as well need a good bedtime routine and you can even set like a reminder on your watch your phone to sort of like start your routine half an hour before bedtime. And certainly not eating food late at night, not drinking caffeine caffeinated anything really from early afternoon onwards. So you're certainly not drinking alcohol because that disturb most definitely disturbed sleep. And then it's things like about we get stuck on Netflix and then the next episode plays. You'll do it. And so really sort of resisting resisting that sort of binge watching and also then having like phones as well trying to turn off the phone half an hour before bedtime. And certainly scrolling is is absolutely horrendously detrimental isn't it to get caught in that. And it's definitely a routine and also time of that we really should be getting between seven and eight hours a night talking about sleep. If we should get between seven and eight hours a night that's sort of two deep cycles of sleep. But the end of the day I think it should be carefully thought through which I think surprises a lot of people. Yeah, it's almost you need to be preparing your body for sleep. And things you talked about as I'm just start actually hours before we're thinking what stimulant have I had that's still going to be in my system eight hours later. And sadly you're so right because you say we do this for children. But we don't do for adults. Well, I think the studies now realizing sort of the implications that the health implications have not getting enough sleep. We come to something that is now much more understood the importance of it and certainly as I say in terms of the my five pillars of well being it's certainly absolutely essential. It is it's super important. What do you say might be the most common hurdle that you see when they're trying to start their health. You know, you mentioned people that are too busy. Is that the common is thing that people face as their hurdle to instigate these changes and what's one simple strategy that you can use to help get over that hurdle. Yeah, that is a huge hurdle and then the other one is the case of people going look, I do know what I should be doing. But it's just the doing it by breaking it down for them and just saying. For example, we've all got these sort of time squeezes. So we don't need to commit to running or exercising for an hour. We break it down to 10 minutes four times a week set it up in your diary. Look at how it is you might need to do an early morning one morning. So that's unrealistic. So just commit to that 10 minutes. We've been trying to find it four times a week and what it's all about really is trying to build up these sort of habits that are embedded so that they become non-negotiables for us that we don't even try and talk ourselves out of it. That it takes away the mental wrestling that we do with these things. So we're going to talk about how we help clients build habits that will last for longer than just a few weeks and you've kind of alluded to that. Is there anything else you want us to add to that? Yeah, definitely. We live in a world of quick fixes and of course the weight loss jam. That's the classic modern day example. But you know quick fixes might result in sort of short term spectacular weight loss, but it isn't going to solve the problem and we do have to look at long term sustainable habits. And just to I always say to reiterate when I mean we're not in the business health coaching isn't about lecturing or judging or expecting people to live like months. It's about being realistic. I think you know we should all go and enjoy ourselves. But it should be kind of you know the treat culture should be. It shouldn't be too often it shouldn't be sort of on a daily basis. And I always think about that 80 20 rule where 80% of the time we eat and drink healthily and then allow ourselves 20% of the time to sort of maybe have a little bit of what we like. And we're realistic to be a regime of complete abstence because that's miserable then. So it's like life is for living, but it has to be with insensible limits. And shameless plug you mentioned, you want weight loss injections the episode that went live last week on the 19th of January. If you've not listened to that, that is all about the facts and the truth behind job. You want injections weight loss. So if you've not heard that then that was our last episode. Do you have ways that you measure the improvement with people I know there's obvious things like all their weights improves or they feel fitter. Do you have help people sort of measure how they're feeling so that you can kind of help them prove to this working or they're doing most most definitely most definitely by using our wellbeing star. So we've got this star where we ask everybody in the first session to rank in sort of numerical order of one to five where they are on the various pillars of the wellbeing star. And and then we talk around those and then at the end of our coaching sessions we go around the star once again. And it's actually wonderful because you can then get a little print out and it shows the progress. So you've got your circle of where you were on the star. And then we've got the circle at the end of the sessions. So it's a really sort of like people people can see progress and I have to say in my 18 months of working for the PCN. I don't think I've seen anyone go backwards. I mean some people whole steady but nearly everybody has made some progress on on their star that overall star. Yeah, brilliant. That's helpful. So we always say to all of our guests if there was one thing you wanted people to know just one little thing you want people to take away. What would that one thing be? So most people doing 7000 steps a day sort of committing to something like that some kind of however it looks. Even if you are fairly immobile you can do some form of movement daily. You can do chair Pilates. There's so many resources online that you can that you can access that will give you ideas and maybe something is a bit of fun with a bit of music to it. So yeah, so try to commit to moving your body every single day. That is what I would say and I know it does sound. Well, movement's realistic. I think exercising is not for everybody but moving our bodies. It's so so important. So that would be my one thing. Thank you so very much, Anthony, for coming on and joining us today. It's been a pleasure to talk to you and we know that people are going to find this really, really, really interesting, really helpful. If you would like an appointment with Zanthi and you're one of our patients we can get it for you. Zanthi says if you are not registered here and you need to speak to a health coach then speak to your GP. Brilliant. Thank you so much, Anthony. Yeah, thank you. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Well, today we are also lucky to be joined by Chris. Those of you who listen to our other podcasts may remember Chris from our shows then Chris is one of our social subscribers. It was an absolute pleasure to have him on our show before and we are really, really happy to have him back with us today. Chris, welcome back to the show. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, been great to have you on board our team locally Chris. I think we've known you for probably what seven years now, maybe something like that approaching. Yeah, it did. Yeah, it's been absolutely, yeah, been a pleasure to work with yourself and all of the PCN members of staff and across the surgery too. Yeah, brilliant. Thank you. So we're going to start off with a nice open one just to sort of introduce your role really. So if people haven't heard the tender for how do you explain what a social prescriber is and how your role fits alongside what we as GPs do or the practice team does. Yeah, absolutely. It's always a question that's asked by patients or members of the team or clinicians like yourself. I know I simply put it to patients regarding when I explain the role in terms of they are creating their own prescription for health and well being that doesn't necessarily come in the bottle. And it's about what matters to them, what's really important to them and what they want to change. So I'll just explain the difference between counseling and therapy as per say and social prescribing, which is that we give that person the time to be listened to about what's important and what matters. And then we can also whatever it is that matters to them at that moment or at that time that we're listening to them. We can share the resources, the safe, the approved sort of NHS and public health England services and support right across the board for them that they can access and they can research and will help them kind of create their own prescription for health and well being. And that's the way that I explain to the patient or to the person. Yeah, and it's a really healthy way of sort of changing because we've been saying in previous episodes, Jeff and me that people might come expect them that what they can receive is in a tap or a bottle or something and there's a quick fix but actually trying to spin the problem in a different way and look at it differently and create a different prescribed approach to the problem is a really meaningful way to tackle it. Yeah, we kind of, you know, we explain to them that we see patients from the age of 13 years upwards and that are registered at the surgeries, myself and Claire, who is on awesome social prescriber, who also works very closely with me. It's providing that person-centered guided conversation regarding what matters to them and it's supporting them enabling and empowering them in co-designing a social prescription with them to kind of promote lifestyle change and to prevent that ill health with them and leading behavioral change sort of techniques but working with them and listening to them and supporting them to identify and and set whatever achievable goals that they have to improve their physical and their emotional well being. We were talking just before we started the show today, weren't we that you guys started locally with us just before the COVID pandemic started, you know, sort of a real baptism of fire, but actually it was such an amazing service as I said earlier to have accessible to our patients. You guys hit the ground running, but it was really good because it'd be other sometimes the bigger parts is something that you guys are so well catered to deal with. So kind to say again, I've been being clear with both say it's the whole team behind us as well. It's such a huge part of us being able to give the time to the person so that they can feel listen to and they feel safe and they feel trusted and they feel comfortable with. So it's everybody else enabling us to be able to do that. That's a huge part and we often say that to patients and to people that remember there's a whole back room team behind us as well. So it's not just us on the delivering or supporting them. It's the team behind us too. And I think we also kind of say to the person and the patient, you know, many things affect all of our health and well being and during COVID was the same as you pointed out. It's not all can easily be fixed by us here in the doctor with medicines and there's lots of other non medical factors that all have an impact on how we manage our health and well being these. And that kind of moves us on then. What sort of problems or situations do you see most commonly these days then? I think the good thing about social prescribing and the whole holistic approach, that question when you ask someone what really matters to them, what's important to them is that it's so diverse. It's so diverse. It can be and that gives us the option of saying, you know, what is it that's important to you about your health and well being? It's not necessarily mental health or anxiety. It can be relationships. It can be it can be domestic issues. It can be financial issues. It can be social issues. It can be loneliness. It can be caring for a loved one. It can be being a career. It can be being a young career. It can be LGBT. You can lust. There's so many diverse issues right across the board. It can be food banks. It can be referring to social groups. It can be so much effects. So that's the wonderful part of that is when you are given when you're allowed to give that time to someone. There's so many diverse sort of things. Yeah, I think that's fascinating. It can make a huge difference to the whole trajectory of their lives, can't it? Yeah. So would you mind going through, we talked about it, say, when you meet someone for the first time, what would a first appointment or first few appointments look like to that person? Yeah, I've depended on this telephone call sometimes they can self-refer through the surgeries as well or it can come from any of the clinicians or any member of staff working the PCM. And sometimes the initial telephone call would be sometimes people don't really know what social prescriber is because it is relatively new. We're talking about it's kind of 10 years old in the NHS. It's a new model person centered care approach part of the NHS long term plan. So we would start up by saying you explain to them the role, as I've said. So they've got a really good understanding of what it is. And then we can offer them that appointment if it's on the telephone or face to face. Just so they've got a really good picture of already. Because some patients can be quite nervous, they can be quite anxious, they can be quite vulnerable. You know, you're phoning them up when you're saying, you know, hi, I'm Chris. I'm a health and wellbeing social prescriber. So it's quite a big thing. It's a new thing. So the way we would say is exactly the same. I would say that the first appointment if it was face to face. Always open up with that question. So what's what's important to you at the moment? What really matters to you at the moment? And that's quite a thought-provoking thing for some people. And that's where it begins. And that's how we take it through what you want to change. And then whatever it is that comes up during that conversation, we would share a resource. Sometimes they don't always think it's nice to have someone think and just support them with that. So that's how the conversation will go. What would you say to people, make a suggestion and say, well, that we've got this social prescriber service, we think, we think as clinicians, actually this is going to be a really useful service to you. What would you say to those patients who respond with talking is not the answer. What's talking going to do? I would say to them, it's not talking, is it being listened to? You've got someone who's, you can trust, you call the safe space, where it's confidential, where you can feel that you're listened to. And I would say, so talking therapy, as per say, sometimes it's not them talking, but it's the feeling listening to. And you're at, at worst, you're giving up 45 minutes of your time. That's how I would say that. And give it a go. It might work, it might not work. British are very stoical stiff upper lip cup tea, just get on with it. Very, our heads were not used to doing that. We're certainly not used to talking with, certainly not used to being listened to. With that sort of thing and we just get on with it. That's us. Yeah, and exactly. And some people we don't want to share today as well. We are very British and we don't want to share our problems. You know, we're stiff upper lip, we just get on with it. But yeah, sometimes those things do over spill into physical symptoms of our bodies and it's just being aware. So I know we're saying to patients, you know, all you're given up is the time, which is important, of course. But sometimes that ability to feel listened to could be more important than that, you're talking. And the other thing I think that I've noticed that you are off for is a flexible way of having that form of communication. So you know, you might do it as text, even just texting people to reach out. It might not be meeting in what for some people might feel a bit of an ominous place coming through a GP practice. So you know, might be offering to meet them in a more. An alternative location. And yeah, I think that's helped, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. That flexibility is crucial because we can go out into the local community. We do work with people who have gone to home visits if it's absolutely, if they can't get to the surgery and that might be a house band or dependent. So there's options there. Sometimes we do work with them where they've just, just sometimes it's very easy to be isolated and feel lonely, even though there's millions of people around you. You can have the whole family around you, but you can still feel a little bit lonely, a bit isolated and sometimes coming to chat with us. We can, if it's, if they can't access a little group somewhere, we'll go with them just for that first appointment. So they feel that they've got someone that they can go with. Or even maybe, you know, sometimes walking with them in the community with your community walking tools because that's really important if they've lost that. So they're just not their confidence, but their ability to just to go through a walk or just go outside or we can offer that as part of the appointment. We'll walk with them to your short walk, not only in the again exercise, but they're talking and they're being listened to at the same time. So lots of different options. I think that is one of the things that is so key to it, isn't it? You've got to feel safe in that environment with the people you're with to get the benefit from it, if you don't have that safety in the first place, you're not going to ever get that benefit. Absolutely. Yeah, there's any person that has to, you know, they have to feel safe. They have to feel listened to. And then because that's how they're going to trust and that's how they're going to confidence. If people are not used to that, being offered that is quite essential. Just it's quite powerful being listened to, isn't it? So you mentioned a few of the things like the warping and the service is available and maybe some of the things that we wouldn't commonly think of. But what other kinds of non medical support or community resources do you find make the biggest difference for patients? That's a very interesting question. I think it's only because it's so subjective on the person that you're sitting in front of you. There's such a wide range of patients that come in and see us. It could be support in debt or money issues that will be we often refer to like faith works, which is a local community, which is a community money advisors to support them with that. There's the local food banks all over Wimbledon, the Furndown that we would work closely with as well and support the patients that there's so many different services, NHS, every mine matters. That's a fabulous resource of information to help people with their mental health as well. There are those who are a lot of people who are in the public health and for young people who are services as well, you know, those who are in the public health, those who are in the public health. There's such a support network that they can access. But I think what we've what we've what we've what we've what we've discovered over the six or seven years of doing this now is that the crucial part of the conversation. It's the feeling of listening to if if a someone feels listen to you can give someone an app you can give them a piece of paper you can provide them with they've got this information and they won't always access it unless they feel trust and they feel safe and they feel listen to. And then they come back and we were saying to them how did you get on with that resource to do access that service. Did you go to that group and that's where it really works. Which links us nicely to we're going to look at some example stories Chris I don't know if you wanted to share a few and we're going to talk about your linking with schools as well, aren't we say. Yeah, yeah, of course. I think I I struggle with this sandwich because there's been some really sort of wonderful outcomes. I think one that springs to mine I think is a person was so person for coffee their charity and this is where the whole team works. I think this is where the whole team I know I keep saying about the whole team but there's myself there's the GP involved there's the community mental health team involved there's a psychiatrist involved everybody's pulling in to meet this person's needs this person really struggled struggled was with with verbalized anything in the early days really much non verbal and what we've seen is this person develop not only their verbal communication skills because the more they spoke or more they felt listen to by our questions which were positive about the whole team they started to come out of the show. And this is a person that really struggled so was been claiming benefits would have not been able to work with their their health was declining and they're meant to help the physical health and one of the reason such stories is taking the what a long time to get there but that person now this year or last year rather in September the as managed to start doing a degree at university for three years success story takes less medication function independent and I supported that person the last appointment or a couple of points before was actually just supporting the person doing the application. So the person that's the whole point of social prescription you're helping them do it you're supporting them do you not helping them I don't I don't type the application just being present sometimes with with patients just being present and allowing them time to do it and they applied online and now successfully three months in doing a degree at university. So I think that's the whole team the social prescribing but through that process and sharing results after resource to support them with their own mental health and their own physical health so the whole thing works and that's what the I think that's a really good set story. Yeah amazing story yeah thank you for sharing that again it sounds like again the recurring theme here is as safety isn't it it's allowing people to feel safe to access the health that's there in their own environment in their own way in a way so that they should listen to but without that underlying safety they're never going to do this. Yes I think again yeah the listen being the feeling of them being the stuff and that's what we get is that they and being and feeling safe and trust that they can just be themselves it's the one place in they get that time to be themselves they don't have to be anybody else they can just be themselves nothing that's what's wonderful about social prescription because there's out there and they're just being they're talking about themselves in a really positive way and you know the the the counseling option of of cams or steps for a being is a really good option for some people some people do you want to process and understand why they're feeling like it and what's going on and that's a really good. Talk to have with the counsellors steps to well being there's some people that some people don't wish that some people don't wish to do that stuff up but they do they do want to place where they can self manage and they can move forward and I think that's where social prescribing comes in. And when they work on this step to open in a different way. That's anything yeah well that needs us on to a question we try and ask all our guests Chris which is if you could give us one pearl of wisdom that you would want to give our listeners to take away. What would it be. I think in some of that I would say health not wealth. I think if you can look after your brain health in the same way as you would your physical health. I think that's got to be a very proactive thing to do and allow yourself some time and space sometimes just just slow down and just be. Just be present rather than worry about what happens in the future and the past is kind of beyond and that's different to what you are now but that new difference is something to. Shape for the future. That's why I would say. Thank you so much Chris for joining us once more it has been an absolute pleasure it's lovely time you back on the show again and we very much look forward to hear from you in the future so thank you so much. No thank you for allowing me to come on and thank you very much for your continued support for social prescribing within the surgeries and please show and thank you for all the conditions and all the members of staff that play a huge part in it. So Sam do you have any take home points from today's really good show. I do Jeff I think if we think about what Zanthi was saying there's a lot to unpick in in our general lives but to try and focus on the five pillars of self care and learn how to do them really well. I think can go a long way to achieving a happy and healthy life with regards to Chris I think people just do need to feel listen to and sometimes because health care is so busy gives the impression that they're not being listened to which is often not the case I argue it's just about the time that certain practitioners have so it's great that they have time to be able to do that in that session. No I agree I think with both our health and wellness coach and our social prescribers we've got access to two really fantastic services that can provide so much more to patients than we can provide or we can give a prescription for some medication for and I know that's not what general practice is necessarily about and give a people medicines but actually it's not the same. But actually having the specialisms that we have they are specialist you know having access them I think it's just wonderful and knowing that we've got access to them if you need them. Yeah it's a good thing. 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