Lorn and Oban Healthy Options
Healthy Options is a Scottish social prescribing project that aims to empower clients to understand changes they can make to improve their health and well-being.
Find out how they used our Social Prescribing Software to be more efficient.
- Access Elemental Social Prescribing – Elemental Core and Population Plus Lite
- Access Elemental Social Prescribing also helped create their self-referral service THRIVE
- Reduction in GP attendance saved over £8000
- Unscheduled care attendance in females reduced by 26% in the 1st year alone
Who are Healthy Options?
Healthy Options’ social prescribing scheme has grown massively since it was established in 2011.
Their combination of unique services including 1-1 specialist support, exercise classes, and educational sessions enables clients to learn and use self-management strategies to improve their health and wellbeing.
In their 2020 evaluation report, Lorn Healthy Options demonstrated that after graduating from Healthy Options’ services patients have reduced their GP attendance by 17% and their unscheduled care attendance by 26% in the first year alone.
Healthy Options uses 3 highly trained exercise professionals to tailor and deliver interventions and services to a variety of clients such as: those that suffer from long term conditions, prevent chronic conditions worsening, or support recoveries from illness or injury.
What is Healthy Options feedback on our social prescribing software?
Gill Bruce is the Development Manager at Lorn and Oban Healthy Options.The video explains how we have helped develop and manage their service to improve the health and wellbeing of residents in Lorn and Oban, as well as reduce pressure on the NHS, and help them develop their new self-referral service, THRIVE, which launched early 2022.
It has been a game changer working with Elemental. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support we’ve had from them in gathering data, evaluating service, and linking people together.
Healthy Option’s journey with Access Elemental Social Prescribing:
Healthy Options began using Elemental Core and Population Plus Lite in 2019. They chose to work with us because they wanted help in demonstrating the impact they are having on both healthcare and cost to the Health & Social Care Partnership .
Elemental has been integral to achieve this and has helped them improve the organisation and efficiency in day-to-day tasks and overviewing service. With our help in just one year alone their referrals have increased by 312.
Since working with Elemental, Healthy Options have been able to create and establish their new service THRIVE. THRIVE is a programme of activities and social events accessed via self-referral which offers clients the chance to belong to a community of like-minded people.
There are various routes in which patients can join the THRIVE programme and 20% of these referrals have come from themselves. It has been highly recognised for its e4xcellence and the achievements that have been made so far to individuals health and wellbeing.
Journal mHealth has explained how Healthy Options and Access Elemental Social Prescribing working together to produce the THRIVE programme is a game changer for social prescribing in Scotland, especially in rural regions where access to GP resources is limited. Their achievements have also been highlighted in the Digifest Conference 2022. Here the achievements of Healthy Options were celebrated as well the benefits which self-referrals in social prescribing have provided communities in the Lorn and Oban area.
“In a couple of weeks I could see I was improving not just my physical health but my mental wellbeing too.”
I have been deeply impressed by the approach and impact that Healthy Options have had in their local community, and very attracted to their model of provision and how they’ve been working so closely with local health and public services.
