Innovation Exchange

What is the problem you are working to solve?

Fact: people suffering with long-term and chronic conditions are doubling every ten years. Added to this is the increase in an ageing population particularly in rural areas. This means that health and social care services will be overstretched and people will be encouraged to, and often want to, do more to try to help themselves.
We have designed a self-assessment tool called ‘Selfawellness’(TM) which encourages people, in particular with various individual needs, to find out how they can extend and improve the self-management of their condition and increase their wellbeing.
This innovative person-centred service and tool can be delivered by a ‘Selfawellness Enabler’ in a community setting, e.g. GP surgery, community hall,village hall etc. The supported session enables the service user to identify their individual concerns and needs currently affecting their wellbeing. The Selfawellness Enabler uses the tool to act as a broker to find local solutions to enhance a service user’s wellbeing. The Selfawellness Enabler will receive training and could be a volunteer, care / support worker, health / complementary practitioner, or service user themselves.
There is potential for this service and tool to be set up as micro-social enterprises in communities creating sustainable income generation, employment opportunities and increased usage of local facilities and local business as well as increasing positive self-management for individuals.

How are you going to do it?

A training package would be offered to potential providers of this service which may include charitable organisations, local community groups and larger providers and commissioners including local authorities and Primary Care Trusts.
The tool is a very simple to use photographic image based selection and placement web-based application. An individual selects images representing issues they face as well as aspects of their life find enhancing and places them on a circular target, representing the positive/negative impact of the issue on the person’s current wellbeing. The image library will always include a selection of localised images to the particular area to help the user identify with their local environment and facilities. With initial support from the trained Selfawellness Enabler, the individual user can find out about local services, both in-house and in the community, which can contribute to the management of their condition. The tool requires an internet connection and a laptop as the minimum equipment required to facilitate a session. It can be accessed in any community setting where broadband is available, which is an increasing facility in many public and community settings. Training will be provided to the Selfawellness Enablers to host and support service users who wish to use the tool and service users can themselves learn to facilitate Selfawellness sessions. Increased usage of local business and services are outcomes of an individual’s Selfawellness assessment. It is possible to track the potential positive environmental impacts from utilising facilities within the locality - for example: local purchases from the food co-ops, using public transport, attending the local sports centre etc.

Who will benefit?

This service and tool has the potential to benefit anyone in the community, in particular people living with long term/chronic conditions who wish to improve their wellbeing through self-assessment/self-management. Service users can learn to use the tool independently of the Selfawellness Enabler and could, themselves, train to provide supported sessions in the community. The service can signpost to other tools including Expert Patients Programme, WRAP etc. The training can offer an adjunct training opportunity for care workers/support workers in parallel with contemporary health and social care training. The service is transportable into urban/rural community settings, empowering individuals and communities. The aim will be to develop the service and tool to become a purchasable service/commodity by local authorities, Primary Care Trusts and other government and private organisations. The Selfawellness Tool meets the criteria for outcome-based commissioning and social care agendas highlighted in the recent government white paper ‘Your Health, Your Care Your Say’.
This tool is very adaptable for people with learning disabilities wishing to increase their sense of choice and empowerment.
The service and tool has the potential to provide social enterprise opportunities and meets the government criteria for ’supporting people’ within the community. We therefore believe Selfawellness to be highly sustainable.

Sally Hill - Director
Community Health International