Make Every Contact Count (MECC)

What is Making Every Contact Count? A Chat to Change.

Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is the opportunistic delivery of consistent and concise healthy lifestyle information via brief or very brief behaviour change interventions, enabling individuals to engage in conversations about their health.

MECC provides an opportunity to discuss health and wellbeing lifestyle pathways which can support and enable behaviour change for key risk factors including smoking, alcohol, healthy weight, physical activity and mental health and may link to local social prescribing offers.

Why are we doing this?

Many long-term diseases affecting our population are closely linked to known behavioural risk factors, with 40% of the UK’s disability adjusted life years lost being attributable to tobacco, hypertension, alcohol, being overweight or being physically inactive.

Our public and community services provide thousands of opportunities every day to work with and support people in living the best lives they can and in accessing the services and help they need to do this.

What are the benefits for your staff, service and patients?

Frontline staff and volunteers routinely have thousands of day-to-day contacts each year with service users, and patients and MECC is about using these to empower and support everyone – including staff themselves - to make healthier choices to achieve positive health outcomes.

Implementing Making Every Contact Count will require training and up-skilling of staff with the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to support these lifestyle behaviour changes.

For organisations, MECC will provide staff with the leadership, environment, training and information they need to deliver the MECC approach.

For staff, MECC can provide the competence and confidence to deliver health and wellbeing messages. This helps encourage people to change their way of thinking/behaviour(s) and can direct them to local services that can support them.

For individuals, MECC means seeking support when needed and taking action to improve their own health and wellbeing.

What MECC training is available?

The MECC e-learning programme is designed to support learners in developing an understanding of public health and the factors that impact on a person’s health and wellbeing. It focuses on how asking questions and listening effectively to people is a vital role for us all.

This e-learning session is made up of sessions 1, 2 and 3. Five Ways to Wellbeing is also available to complete as optional learning.

You will need to register for free via the link below on the e-lfh website to access the MECC E- learning resources.

https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/making-every-contact-count/

The first step in embedding Making Every Contact Count will be to engage colleagues, health professionals and volunteers in comprehensive and ongoing training opportunities, underpinned by reliable resources and a communication campaign.

A Train the Trainer approach has been adopted across Lancashire and South Cumbria:

“to support staff to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to offer public health and wellbeing messages, via very brief interventions, to both service users and colleagues during the course of their day-to-day work.”

Face to face, one day MECC Train the Trainer sessions are being delivered on a monthly basis across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

What are the objectives and benefits of the training?

By completing the 1-Day Face to Face course participants will have:

Described the context and rationale for MECC within their role and its positive health impact on individuals, services and local populations.
Explained the public health messages and discussed how small yet significant changes can support people to better health.
Gained confidence in having the conversation and from the reliability of the resources to support them.
Practiced using the three A’s (Ask, Assist, Act) framework and a person-centred approach to deliver a brief intervention.
Considered how they might embed MECC within their role, utilising the branding and material assets that form the MECC Communications Campaign.
Identified further opportunities to promote and cascade the MECC approach throughout their organisation.
Acquired the necessary additional teaching / training skills to aid them in promoting and cascading their skills and knowledge to colleagues.
Gained an understanding of how MECC aligns with related initiatives e.g., social prescribing.
Used and understood the MECC-link online resource (below) and how they underpin brief and very brief interventions: www.MECClink.co.uk/lancashire-and-south-cumbria

There is a requirement for participants attending the course to deliver a minimum of one MECC training session (This can be either a 7 mins intervention, 1 hour or 3 hour session every eight weeks to their organisation, service or community/third sector organisation.

Participants will require the support and commitment of their managers to enable them to attend. As places on each course are limited, please take advantage of this opportunity to ensure representation from a range of organisations and communities across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

This training aligns with person centred models of personalised care and social prescribing models whilst ensuring the public has access to agreed, informed and evidence-based health and well-being advice and information.

To find out about course availability, please contact:

workforcetraining@activelancashire.org.uk

MECC Train the trainer info for managers

Back to Personalised Care Training page