The Life Rooms have been shortlisted for a prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Award in the Digitising Patient Care category.
We have been shortlisted for our work in driving efficiency in referrals, what we refer to as interoperability, between clinical services in Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to our Pathways Advise Team who support people to address social circumstances around finances, social isolation, employment and training opportunities, and more.
This interoperability allows clinicans in Mersey Care mental health teams to make quick digital referrals to The Life Rooms, meaning they can focus more of their time on clinical interventions, while feeling confident that the social needs of their service users are still being addressed by The Life Rooms in a safe and well-governed way, and together providing wrap-around support for people in our communities.
Through our pilot project in the Mid-Mersey region, we were able to demonstrate some fantastic results:
- the amount of time clinicians surveyed spent supporting service users with social needs like housing, financial concerns, and social isolation, reduced significantly once interoperability with The Life Rooms was introduced,
- 97.2% of clinicians surveyed felt confident in meeting the social needs of their service users by referring them to The Life Rooms,
- 92.6% of service users surveyed felt that the support they received had a positive effect on their mental wellbeing (levels of anxiety, low mood, stress,
- 85.1% of service users surveyed felt that the support they received had a positive effect on their social and practical circumstances (finance, housing etc).
Well done to all of The Life Rooms team involved in this project, Access Elemental, and Mersey Care's clinical teams who we worked alongside.
Thank you to the HSJ Awards for recognising the innovation and impact of this work within the shortlist for the Digitising Patient Care Award.