IntroductionThe disparity between income and rising prices has pushed many households across the UK into poverty. Social prescribing has the potential to support individuals to improve their financial well-being and address socioeconomic factors that are negatively impacting their health and well-being, an approach that is supported by the National Framework for Social Prescribing. However, little is currently known about the provision of such support within the UK and the Republic of Ireland.MethodsA scoping review was conducted to explore financial well-being advice and support, delivered within the context of social prescribing in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Keywords were combined into search strings using Boolean operators to search five electronic databases between 04/02/2025 and 10/02/25.ResultsThe full text of 126 articles were screened, resulting in the inclusion of 28 articles in the review (15 x peer-reviewed articles and 13 x grey literature articles).DiscussionFrom the literature, we identified three models of financial well-being advice and support within social prescribing: a social prescribing practitioner-led model, a specialist advisor-led model, and a wraparound model. Most articles related to financial well-being advice and support targeted at welfare benefits, debt and legal issues, delivered by specialist advisors co-located in healthcare settings. The delivery of targeted support in this manner was reported as having a number of positive outcomes for patients and healthcare staff, and several strategies were identified to increase the efficacy of such support. Few articles reported on the social prescribing practitioner-led model of delivery of financial well-being advice and support. For those that did, direct support was provided out of necessity due to a lack of availability of specialist advisors in the community, which negatively impacted capacity. While there is potential for social prescribing to play a more integral role in the delivery of financial well-being advice and support and support, further research is required to ensure the efficacious employment of funding and delivery, which may differ across nations and regions.

Introduction:Social prescribing can facilitate the integration of health, social care and community support but has a diverse and confusing terminology that impairs cross-sectoral communication and creates barriers to engagement. Methods:To address this issue a mixed-methods approach that incorporated a scoping review, a group concept mapping study and consultation was employed to identify and classify the terminology associated with social prescribing. The findings were then used to inform the development of a glossary of terms for social prescribing. Results:Many terms are used interchangeably to describe the same specific aspects of social prescribing. Much of the terminology originates from the health and social care literature of England. Discussion:The terminology used in the academic literature may not accurately reflect the terminology used by the social prescribing workforce. The innovative and interactive glossary of terms identifies the terminology associated with social prescribing and provides additional contextual information. The process of developing the dual language glossary presented several considerations and challenges. Conclusion:The glossary of terms will facilitate cross-sector communication and reduce barriers to engagement with social prescribing. It takes an important first step to help clarify and standardise the language associated with social prescribing, for professionals and members of the public alike.

Aim: To identify the social prescribing-related terminology within the peer-reviewed literature of the UK and the grey literature from Wales. Background: Social prescribing has seen a period of development that has been accompanied by a proliferation of related terminology and a lack of standardisation in the manner in which it is employed. This creates barriers to engagement and impairs communication, both between professionals and members of the public. The Wales School for Social Prescribing Research and Public Health Wales committed to the development of a glossary of terms for social prescribing, to facilitate the clarification and standardisation of the associated terminology. Here, we describe the first step in that process. Method: A scoping review of the peer-reviewed UK literature and Welsh grey literature was conducted. The titles and abstracts of 46,242 documents and the full text of 738 documents were screened. Data were charted from 205 documents. Data capture included terminology, the location within the UK of the research or intervention described in the article, and the perspective from which the article was authored. A general inductive approach was used to categorise the terms by theme. Findings: This research serves to highlight the breadth and diversity of the terminology associated with social prescribing. Results demonstrate aspects of shared commonality and clear distinction between the terminology from the two literature sources. The greatest contributions of terms were from articles that examined research and/or interventions in England and that were authored from the perspective of health or health and social care. The research indicates that nation- and sector-specific terms may not be adequately represented in the literature at large. Looking forward, it will be important to ensure that social prescribing terminology within the UK literature is culturally relevant and accurately reflects the terminology used by the workforce who encounter and deliver social prescribing.

Abstract Background Social prescribing (SP) offers an alternative and adjunctive form of holistic support for many issues, through engagement in community-based activities. SP has undergone a period of growth and development, accompanied by a diverse and confusing terminology that creates barriers to engagement and communication. Methods We used a mixed methods approach to collate the terminology associated with SP: Consultation with the SP workforce, a group concept mapping study (GCM), and a scoping review of UK peer-reviewed literature and Welsh grey literature. Results We identified a total of 426 terms, many of which described the same specific elements of SP. Scoping review data was charted from 205 documents: 60% of terms occurred solely in peer-reviewed literature, 20% occurred solely in Welsh grey literature, with an overlap of 10% across both sources. Grey literature contained a higher number of terms per article. Data from the scoping review and GCM study indicated a bias for articles and terminology from England and the healthcare sector that does not necessarily reflect the terminology commonly used by the SP workforce. Preferences for some terms were sector-specific, although many of the terms identified were seemingly used interchangeably with little standardisation across and within specific services. Conclusions This research highlights the breadth and diversity of the terminology associated with SP. Results were used to produce an innovative and interactive glossary of terms, in the form of a PDF and a website. Unlike traditional glossaries, it incorporates a description of the terms, shows the connectedness of terms, and identifies alternative terms and preferences for certain terms across sectors. The glossary of terms for SP provides an informative reference tool for the general public, SP workforce and commissioners. It will improve understanding across sectors and professions, and facilitate the standardisation of the language associated with SP. Key messages • The language associated with social prescribing is diverse and confusing, creating barriers to engagement and impairing communication with the public, and across sectors and professions. • The glossary of terms for social prescribing, that resulted from this research, provides an informative reference tool for the general public, social prescribing workforce and commissioners.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:Obesity affects more than forty percent of adults over the age of sixty. Aberrant eating styles such as disinhibition have been associated with the engagement of brain networks underlying executive functioning, attentional control, and interoception. However, these effects have been exclusively studied in young samples overlooking those most at risk of obesity related harm.METHODS:Here we assessed associations between resting-state functional connectivity and disinhibited eating (using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire) in twenty-one younger (aged 19-34 years, BMI range: 18-31) and twenty older (aged 60-73 years, BMI range: 19-32) adults matched for BMI. The Alternative Healthy Eating Index was used to quantify diet quality.RESULTS:Older, compared to younger, individuals reported lower levels of disinhibited eating, consumed a healthier diet, and had weaker connectivity in the frontoparietal (FPN) and default mode (DMN) networks. In addition, associations between functional connectivity and eating behaviour differed between the two age groups. In older adults, disinhibited eating was associated with weaker connectivity in the FPN and DMN--effects that were absent in the younger sample. Importantly, these effects could not be explained by differences in habitual diet.CONCLUSIONS:These findings point to a change in interoceptive signalling as part of the ageing process, which may contribute to behavioural changes in energy intake, and highlight the importance of studying this under researched population.

INTRODUCTION:Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is an umbrella term referring to the neurocognitive impairments caused by excessive and prolonged alcohol use and the associated nutritional deficiencies. This study evaluated the outcomes of an online research-informed training program for ARBD which aimed to improve client outcomes by promoting support staff's awareness and confidence in working with clients who may have (or who are at risk of developing) the condition.METHODS:Staff working within a large non-governmental non-profit housing organisation (n = 883) enrolled in the training program. Questionnaires were used pre- and post-training to collect self-reported awareness of ARBD and confidence in supporting individuals with the condition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 staff members approximately 10 weeks post-completion of the program. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed by employing qualitative content analysis.RESULTS:Findings from the questionnaires indicated a significant increase in all measures after completing the training program. Three main themes were developed based on the interview data: changes to awareness and understanding; professional practice; and training-specific characteristics. Participants reported changes in their ability to identify potential service users with ARBD and confidence in doing so.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:Our findings demonstrate that online training programs can be effective in improving support staff's ability to identify ARBD, potentially leading an increase in signposting service users to relevant services. The research-informed nature of the training demonstrates that translating research findings directly to frontline workers can have a substantial impact and may improve outcomes for this client group.

The “frontal lobe paradox” highlights a phenomenon in which a subset of patients who possess frontal lobe damage and exhibit marked impairments in everyday life are still able to able to verbally describe a logical course of action relating to a task and perform well in interview and test settings. Such cases pose a challenge with regard to the assessment of mental capacity within clinical settings. Recent position articles state that the frontal lobe paradox is a well-known phenomenon within the field of neuropsychology, anecdotal reports from clinicians in the UK suggest this is not the case. Consequently, we conducted a scoping review to examine the breadth and depth of literature relating to the frontal lobe paradox. Searches were conducted using electronic databases and search engines, which were supplemented with a snowball search of the references used within relevant literature. We identified and reviewed 28 documents specifically related to the frontal lobe paradox. Nearly 50% of all identified academic texts published since 2000 were position articles that cited a handful of case studies published between 1936 and 1986 as evidence for the phenomenon. We also observed instances of articles citing position articles as evidence of the frontal lobe paradox. Overall, our findings indicate a lack of readily accessible research specific to the frontal lobe paradox. In particular, there is a lack of contemporary research specific to the subject and an absence of clarification as to which syndromes and disorders are included within the term.

Aims Primary aim: to determine the efficacy of FAST (the Fast Alcohol Screening Test) for detecting harmful and dependent levels of alcohol use. Secondary aim: to compare the performance of the FAST to two short forms of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT): the AUDIT-C and AUDIT-3. Methods Data from 3336 individuals in South Wales, compiled from full AUDIT datasets, were examined. AUROC analysis, alongside measures of sensitivity and specificity of the FAST, AUDIT-C and AUDIT-3 were utilized for the identification of harmful and dependent alcohol use. Results The FAST demonstrated efficacy in the identification of harmful and dependent levels of alcohol use, with superior performance to both the AUDIT-C and AUDIT-3. Conclusion The present paper demonstrates the potential of the FAST as a cost- and time-effective method for appropriate screening and signposting in the stepped care model utilized by many health care and treatment services. Further studies are needed to ensure validity, both within the general population and for specific services and populations.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive form of brain stimulation, which allows for selective inhibition or excitation of neural structures. It has demonstrated some efficacy in the treatment of mood disorders. However, these studies have predominately focused on stimulation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The cerebellum has an increasingly recognized role in emotional control, affective state, and some psychopathologies. As such, tDCS research into mood modulation needs to expand beyond conventional PFC-focused paradigms. Using a contralateral stimulation electrode placement [anodal left dorsolateral(dl)PFC, cathodal right cerebellum], and a single-blind, repeated-measures design, we initially assessed changes in the mood of healthy participants in response to acute stimulation (n = 44) and three repeated stimulations delivered second-daily (n = 21). In a second experiment, we separately investigated the influence of reversed polarity upon these same measures, in response to acute stimulation (n = 23) and repeated stimulation (n = 11). We observed a systematic elevation of mood in both active conditions following single and repeated tDCS, the latter of which displayed a progressive elevation of mood from baseline. No mood change was noted in response to either single or repeated stimulation in the sham condition. Frontocerebellar tDCS stimulation advantageously influences mood in healthy participants, with an accumulative and potentiated effect following successive stimulations. The possibility that frontocerebellar stimulation may provide a novel therapeutic adjunctive or pre-emptive intervention in stress-related disorders and mood-related psychopathologies should be considered.