A small chat can lead to a big change

Taking the time for a quick chat can help spark a conversation about what matters and help you make a big difference to your health and wellbeing.

Making every contact count (MECC)

Making every contact count (MECC) is an approach to behaviour change that uses the millions of day to day interactions that we have with other people to encourage changes in behaviour that have a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and populations. Whether you are a health and care professional, community worker, colleague or friend, we have put together an online toolkit of resources to make it easy to start those conversations.

The Lancashire and South Cumbria MECC link website (link opens in a new window) contains suggested questions and useful links covering a range of topics - from smoking, alcohol and healthy diet to finance.

If you have any updates or new services for MECC, please use this link.

Why this matters

Making every contact count creates an opportunity to signpost people to ways of tackling some of the major causes of ill-health – whether that is giving up smoking, reducing alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy weight, increasing physical activity, improving mental health and wellbeing or working out how to tackle social, economic or environmental issues.

Making every contact count (MECC) campaign promotional materials

You can download a range of materials to help promote Making every contact count (MECC) from our campaign resources page - including posters and flyers.

You may also find the stakeholder toolkit useful.

Visit the MECC link website for a toolkit of resources (link opens in a new window)

The Population Wellbeing Portal is free to access by anyone who can positively impact public health and wellbeing.

The Portal offers free access to education, training and professional development resources, to help deliver improvements in public health and prevention. Providing a central location for numerous e-learning resources, reading material, guidance, toolkits and videos, factsheets and many more resources relating to population health.

The Portal brings together material from multiple sources. This includes resources from Health Education England (HEE), Public Health England (PHE); the Academy for Public Health for London and Kent, Surrey, Sussex, the Faculty of Public Health as well as many others. It links with All Our Health, PHE’s framework of evidence to guide healthcare professionals in preventing illness, protecting health and promoting wellbeing.

Visit the portal

Health literacy

Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems. Therefore, to access, assess and apply health information, people need to be health literate. People working in health and social care need to be aware of health literacy and of the techniques that can help to increase understanding.

The e-learning resource takes about 30 mins to complete. At the end of the module learners will know why health literacy is important and how to use some simple techniques to improve communication and check understanding with others.

After each section learners complete an action plan, detailing how they plan to use the techniques in practice. This plan can be used as evidence of learning in appraisals or professional portfolios.

Access the health literacy e-learning here

All our health

Interactive All Our Health learning sessions written by PHE and developed by Health Education England’s e-Learning for Healthcare, are available to increase the knowledge, confidence and skills of all health and care professionals in embedding prevention in their day to day practice.

Currently, there are seven 17 e-learning sessions available covering a wide variety of public health topics.

View and access all our health e-learning here

e-Learning for health

There are two Health Education England MECC e-Learning packages. Both resources are intended for anyone who has contact with people to make every contact count and develop public health knowledge.

The preferred training module for Lancashire and South Cumbria is the Wessex programme.

Access the e-learning for health here

New Making Every Contact Count free online learning resource

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.

Access the free online MECC course here

MECC

This guidance will support people and organisations when considering or reviewing MECC activity and aid local implementation and measurement of programme impact.

Organisations will find these resources useful when addressing MECC service condition SC8 within the NHS Standard Contract.

The NHS Standard Contract requires providers to develop and maintain an organisational plan for making every contact count, in accordance with MECC principles and guidance.

The standard condition SC8 refers to the use of MECC tools, which are available above on this webpage. The resources are for use by organisations:

considering or reviewing MECC activity
developing or commissioning new MECC training
seeking evidence, to measure the impact of local MECC delivery
undertaking a review of existing MECC training resources
developing and providing MECC training resources

Access the resources on Gov.uk here

Health matters

Health Matters brings together facts, resources and information on major public health issues for public health professionals, local authorities and CCG commissioners.

This brings together in one place the most informative data and the best evidence of what works in addressing major public health problems and includes infographics, videos, case studies and slide sets alongside written content.

Each edition of Health matters focuses on a specific public health topic, setting out the scale of the problem and the evidence for cost-effective interventions. We also signpost people to additional data, resources and important facts.

Access the health matters issues here

Public health profiles

These profiles are a rich source of indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes that have been designed to support JSNA and commissioning to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities.

View the profiles here

Apps and tools for adults

There are a range of recommended adult apps and tools to support Health and Wellbeing which offer quizzes and practical support including:

Active 10 - Add more regular bursts of brisk walking to your daily routine with activity tracking, encouragement and achievable milestones
Drink Free Days - Feel healthier, lose weight and save money. Just pick your days to skip the alcohol and get practical support to stick with it
Easy Meals - More than 150 delicious, easy, healthier recipes just a tap away. Search by mealtime and save shopping lists for later
Couch to 5K - Get off the couch and running 5K in just 9 weeks. Grab your trainers and follow the step-by-step audio instructions
NHS Smokefree - Start a 4-week programme that puts practical support, encouragement, milestones and tailored advice in the palm of your hands.

It also recommends other trusted apps and resources all in one place.

Access the above apps and more on the NHS website here

Families

Change 4 life offers a range of tools and resources to encourage families to be healthier and happier including a food scanner to support making healthy food choices and activities such as the 10 minute shake-up
Start4life programme is the information service for parents, offering weaning advice and breastfeeding friend.

Personalised care

Making every contact count is part of a Lancashire and South Cumbria wide approach to delivering personalised care.

More about our work on personalised care in Lancashire and South Cumbria.