ConnectWELL

Lead service provider/commissioner

Name:

ConnectWELL

Type of knowledge

Type of knowledge:

Project description only

Prevention service description

The two main pathways accommodate low level and high level needs through: Trained ‘Navigators’ actively guide, signpost and support people to identify and access relevant and appropriate services available to them. Trained ‘Health Buddies’, where necessary, accompany and support individuals, on a one-to-one basis, to access the services to which they have been signposted. As a patient becomes more confident, a Health Buddy will gradually reduce the level of support over a period of time (within the parameters of the agreed plan between the Health Buddy and the patient).

Increased loneliness and an ageing population with higher health and social care support needs has resulted in an increased use in medication, higher incidence of falls and fractures, and an increased need for long term care and visits to the local GP. ConnectWELL benefits patient care, health and wellbeing, but also the service aims to reduce pressures on front-line services, through prevention or escalation of health conditions. Social Prescribing services, such as ConnectWELL, enhance health behaviours, health consequences, self-efficacy, social support, skills and future employment. Public Health England and ConnectWELL produced a 2015/2016 report, monitoring and evaluating the impact of ConnectWELL in promoting and addressing quality of life outcomes in patients and service users (see attached research).

Intervention/service type:

Befriending, mentoring and peer support; Information and advice; Community services; Low-level support; Social prescribing; Self-care; Community capacity building

Target client group(s):

Older people; Adults with long-term health conditions; Adults with learning disabilities; Adults with mental health problems; Carers; Adults with physical disabilities; Vulnerable adults