What is Making Every Contact Count (MECC)?
MECC is a national programme, about capitalising on the opportunities to make a difference to people’s health and wellbeing. By helping people to make changes to their lives, it is possible to prevent ill-health, improve overall health and reduce health inequalities.
Telling people what to do is not the most effective way to help them realise the changes they want to make. MECC provides social worker training and supports front line staff to develop a different way of working with people to address health and wellbeing through:
- Learning how to spot opportunities to talk to people about their health and wellbeing
- Having healthy conversations
- Signposting to services that support people who want to make changes to improve their health
Frontline staff who have been trained in MECC also tell us how they’ve made changes to their own lives, and the lives of their friends and family, thanks to the quality of training they received.
MECC in Tower Hamlets
More than 1,000 professionals from over 100 local organisations in Tower Hamlets have been MECC-trained. An evaluation of the programme showed that 95% of those trained felt more confident to raise matters with clients and 92% felt they had improved skills that help clients make lifestyle changes. In addition, 55% reported making a change in their own lives as a result of training.
Join the movement and help it grow!
We actively encourage more people in Tower Hamlets to pursue MECC training. If you or your colleagues are not yet trained through MECC, please click the link to sign-up or share online:
http://thcepn.com/making-every-contact-count
What is the MECC Community of Practice?
We asked staff who had received MECC training what Tower Hamlets Together could do to support them following the training. This webpage contains the suggestions that staff made, including resources on MECC topic areas, refresher MECC training, further training, an online forum and case studies on how you are putting MECC into practice during your working day. The Community of Practice is a work in progress, so if you have any thoughts, please do contact us. We’ll also be arranging opportunities for MECC-trained staff to get together - watch this space.
Tower Hamlets Together Making Every Contact Count (MECC)
Duration:
Learn about the impact MECC is having on frontline staff and local residents in this video.
How healthy are you?
Get a FREE personalised health score when you complete this 10 minute quiz:
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/hay#YAMA7kBvW5F0sC80.97
Refreshing your MECC skills
Are you struggling to put your carer or social worker training into practice? Register here to complete a short e-learning course to refresh your memory and embed those skills in your everyday work:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/making-every-contact-count/
Increasing your skills further
Now you’ve completed your MECC training, you might be interested in developing your skills further. Here are a few options you might like to check out:
Royal Society for Public Health -
https://www.rsph.org.uk/qualification/rsph-level-1-award-in-health-awareness.html
https://www.rsph.org.uk/qualification/level-1-award-in-health-improvement.html
Mental Health First Aid - http://thcepn.com/mhfa
Suicide Prevention Training – http://thcepn.com/suicide-prevention/