On Thursday 3rd November, 137 colleagues from across Cheshire and Merseyside and guests from Norfolk and the South West attended the Lunch and Learn webinar to relaunch the updated Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Moments website.
The MECC-Moments website is a resource for professionals delivering MECC or MECC training to give them access to place-based service directory and resources to run a MECC campaign in their place or organisation.
The updated service directory and additional social determinant topics added are thanks to a huge contribution from MECC leads in each of the nine Local Authority Public Health Teams, making the resource up-to-date and fit for purpose.
The next step is to develop a Community of Practice for MECC, to drive it forward and embed it in everyone’s day to day work.
Download the MECC Moments presentation here
What do we mean by Making Every Contact Count?
“MECC is an approach to behaviour change that uses the millions of day-to-day interactions that organisations and people have with other people to support them in making positive changes to their own physical and mental wellbeing”
Aims and ambitions
- MECC enables the delivery of consistent and concise health and wellbeing information and encourages individuals to engage in conversations about their health at scale across organisations and populations.
- The fundamental idea underpinning the MECC approach is simple. It recognises that staff across health and care, local authority and voluntary sectors have thousands of contacts every day with individuals and are ideally placed to support health and wellbeing.
- MECC is intended for anyone who has contact with people to “Make Every Contact Count” and develop public health knowledge.
- A MECC interaction takes a matter of minutes and is not intended to add to existing busy workloads, rather it is structured to fit into and complement existing engagement approaches.
Who is it aimed at?
MECC is for everyone, it is not restricted to one person, profession, or organisation.
For organisations, MECC means providing staff with the leadership, environment, training and information they need to deliver the MECC approach. For staff, MECC means having the competence and confidence to deliver health and wellbeing messages, to help encourage people to change their behaviour and to direct them to local services that can support them.
For individuals, MECC means seeking support and taking action to improve their own health and wellbeing.
In the current context, with the health inequalities prevalent across our ICB footprint and the cost-of living crisis, all nine places and the 18 NHS Trusts in Cheshire and Merseyside are developing MECC.
Learning opportunities on offer
As well as the Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Moments website relaunch webinar, there are a range of learning opportunities for those who want to know more about MECC.
The MECC elearning 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.
- Making Every Contact Count – Gain CPD points and continue your personalised care learning experience with elearning for healthcare.
- Everyday Interactions – RSPH and PHE have developed a short, free e-learning to support the Everyday Interactions toolkit.
- https://mecc.publichealthnetwork.cymru/en/e-learning/ – Equipping our partners with the skills and knowledge to have effective health behaviour change conversations.
- https://champspublichealth.com/public-health-workforce-development/population-health-prevention-workforce-development-programme/ – previous learning themes that support MECC categories.
For more information on MECC in Cheshire and Merseyside, contact Steve Peters, Champs Support Team Lead for Population Health Workforce Development stephenpeters@wirral.gov.uk