Project 5 - Bromley by Bow

Transforming Social Prescribing at BBBC: Service design for improving Community Health

Our project aimed to improve the social prescribing experience at the Bromley by Bow Centre (BBBC) by addressing community disconnects and enhancing the social prescribing process. Working with 4 other designers, I was in charge and a part of the conducted research, synthesised insights, and crafted actionabl strategies. This experience deepened my understanding of the service design process and highlighted the importance of adapting strategies to real-world contexts.

Additionally, despite the increasing demand for social prescribing, the number of people being supported had decreased due to understaffing and funding cuts. We also identified low self-referrals, long waiting times, and a lack of impact tracking as major challenges hindering the effectiveness of social prescribing services.

We conducted in-depth interviews and field observations to gather insights from the community and staff and analysed demographics and affluence to understand the user base and the area's socio-economic context.

We proposed the creation of integrated community health centers where the entire social prescribing journey could take place in one location. This model aimed to reduce dropouts, improve service tracking, and ensure a seamless user experience.

Other than that, we proposed recommendations such as:

1. Raising Awareness: Updated the BBBC website and organised workshops in collaboration with schools and offices to educate the community about social prescribing

2. Community Collaboration: Proposed partnerships with developers, such as the BBB Gasworks redevelopment project, to combine resources and foster community engagement

3. Buddy System: Implemented a buddy system to reduce waiting times and enhance user motivation by pairing users with similar needs for mutual support

4. Care Packages: Created tailored care packages to engage users while they wait and for those unable to visit the center, including art supplies and informational leaflets.

Here were a few things I learned from this project:

1. Know when to stop- there was a lot of information and data where we become overwhelmed and we need to assure that analysing and synthesising data is very important rather and non-stop researching

2. Look at the big picture- understand the system as a whole and identify connections between different insights

3. Validate desk research with field observations- ensure that findings from desk research align with real-world observations.