There are plenty more recent examples of some of our valued work locally, based on the key services we currently offer, including:
We regularly attend or host events to gather public feedback, with support from our volunteer engagement team, including: Drop-in sessions at various locations, talks, coffee mornings, community group meetings, conferences & health and wellbeing events. We also visit community settings to gather views on local health & social care services in Torbay and have recruited a team of ‘champions’ to support engagement work by being active in their own community or the organisation they work for.
We are often asked to assess the effectiveness of a product, service or tool in the eyes of the local public or community. For example, Health and Care Videos – a partnership with Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust – have worked with a variety of organisations to produce libraries of educational health and care videos and helpful resources, including: Torbay Council, hospitals, GP surgeries, pharmacies, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisations and both the paid and unpaid carer sector. As an independent organisation, we were requested by Health and Care Videos to conduct a consultation of how effective the online video libraries were to the people who use them and undertake an evaluation on the impact of Health and Care Videos’ by surveying the public, carers, patients, staff members and stakeholders. The detailed report on the findings is available by clicking here.
Local health & wellbeing providers and organisations have requested our support on occasion to help show them how to open up an effective two-way dialogue between the community and themselves. This has included working with local GP Practices to develop bespoke ways of informing their patients about potentially sensitive changes such as a merger with another GP Practice.
Our Digital Inclusion Project for Torbay and the wider Devon area offered one to one support to older people so that they can use their own devices, phones, tablets, laptops to access health, social care and wellbeing services. This included hosting Digital ‘Parties’ in their own homes for family and friends to learn how to use the internet to do things like book appointments or order prescriptions.
We can offer a variety of flexible training opportunities both in person and online via our Digital Health Devon e-learning resource, which has this year been used to build a network of community trainers across the county, including a unique cohort of nursing, healthcare and midwifery students at Plymouth University, who have been supporting Digital Drop In Sessions at GP Practices and selected community venues throughout Devon.
We regularly work with the voluntary sector to share engagement opportunities and raise awareness of some of the valuable work they undertake in our popular community email newsletter. For more information or to view previous editions, please click here.