Talking Health - supporting commissioning decisions through person-centred care

What were the objectives? Ensuring that people’s views are heard at all levels and across all parts of the healthcare system is essential for creating and delivering better health and care services. NHS organisations are committed to working and engaging with patients, carers and the public in a wide range of ways. People are keen to get involved, but in ways and at times that suit them best. They want to know what others think, to be kept up to date with developments, and to know how their involvement has made a difference. As well as welcoming general views and opinions, commissioners need cost-effective and time-efficient ways to ‘push’ information to local audiences for consideration, to analyse their responses, and to update them on progress.

What did we deliver? We co-developed a suite of highly accessible online participation tools with technology partner Inovem, a CCG customer, and input from patient and public groups. The tools are designed so that commissioners can: Build ‘communities of interest’ through a membership system Engage with people on their chosen topics and create continuous dialogue Record and analyse feedback from online and other engagement activities Track relationships and member activity over time. Each person chooses WHAT to participate in and HOW they want to take part, which enables commissioners to adapt communication according to individual preferences. The tools automatically provide feedback to participants to let them know the outcomes of issues they are interested in, which otherwise requires substantial administration. Talking Health reaches people who may not normally participate, such as people in full-time work, mums, and carers – evidence also shows membership across a wide age range. Feedback is captured in many ways including surveys, quick polls, and discussion forums, with the facility to consolidate qualitative data from face-to-face events. Customers can analyse responses against demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity). Automatically develops a database that can be used for future participation initiatives. Optimises reach via multi-platform capability and high Web Accessibility Initiative ratings.

How do we add value for our customers? Talking Health is designed to support everything from ad hoc feedback to full public consultation. Mapping tools show involvement levels visually, to identify any ‘gaps’ in engagement (as shown). Applications link to social media to widen the participating audience. We provide technical and marketing support to deploy and maintain the service. The tools are configurable to each customer’s preferences, with options for direct licencing.

Customer Feedback “Talking Health works for me on several levels. Personally, it provides me with an easily accessible update on all health and social care issues and consultations. As a Patient Group Chair, I use Talking Health as a simple way of keeping around 5,000 members of the public up-to-date, by emailing it out to all the patient groups in our area so they can take part.” Martin Tarran-Jones, Chair of the South West Oxfordshire Patient Representative Group and the Woodlands Medical Centre Patient Group