Welfare Advice & Health Partnerships (WAHP)

WAHP stands for Welfare Advice & Health Partnerships.
It is a programme in Scotland that embeds welfare rights / financial / benefits / money advice workers in health-care settings (e.g. GP practices).
Its aim is early intervention: helping patients who might have money. welfare rights, housing, debt or related worries, because those issues impact health as well as well-being.

Advice workers are placed in GP practices (or collaborate with practices) so patients can be referred to them directly from health care.
These workers might have consensual access to medical records so as to better understand patients' health context.
Issues they help with include financial support/welfare rights, debt, housing, and other social/determinants of health factors. This helps reduce health inequalities and improves health outcomes.

I did not find a definitive public list in what I searched confirming which GP practices in North-West Glasgow have WAHP workers embedded (or how far the rollout extends in that specific area).
But the Improvement Service (which runs WAHP) reports that over 180 GP practices across Scotland have WAHP advisers in place, focusing especially on more deprived and rural areas.
It's likely that some GP practices in North-West Glasgow have WAHP or similar advice pathways (or could benefit from setting this up) especially in areas with higher social deprivation.

GP can refer a patient, if they identify that non-medical issues (money, benefits, housing, etc) are contributing to health problems.
Patients might be offered an appointment with a welfare advisor via the practice.
This can reduce time wasted on repeated health problems caused/complicated by social stressors.
For patients: reduces the barrier to getting advice (because advice is in or close to GP practice, trusted setting)

To find out further information, please click here.