Merton Connected Case Study
Merton Connected helps support organsiations in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to develop partnership activities which are more sustainable and benefit the community. They needed a service that helped them streamline and stabilise their services and chose to work with us at Access Elemental Social Prescribing due to our two-way integration functionality with leading clinical software, including EMIS Web.
Discover their journey and the benefits the experienced using our social prescribing software today.
Who are Merton Connected?
Merton Connected offer support to organisations to help encourage them to develop and become more sustainable. They provide a wide range of services through developing and supporting volunteering, and working with organisations in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to develop partnership activities to benefit the community.
One of their services is delivering social prescribing across Merton and its local area. Their social prescribing services were initially piloted in 2017 in the East of Merton, and in September this year they celebrated 5 years of the service running. 206 patients were involved in the initial pilot and 77% of patients had improved or had better wellbeing following using the service.
They work hard to improve the health and wellbeing of their patients through providing non-clinical medical support to reduce general practices workloads.
By 2019 they were working with an additional 9 GP practices and had 2 additional social prescribing coordinators. Initially the service had one social prescribing link worker and now there are 12 in the team supporting patients across 6 different primary care networks and 21 GP practices with non-medical needs.
Why did Merton Connected decide to work with Access Elemental Social Prescribing?
In order to continue expanding their social prescribing service following the success of their pilot, Merton Connected needed help to stabilise their service.
They wanted to increase the efficiencies of both the day-to-day running of their service and help with their case management.
They decided to work with us and use our Access Elemental Core module due to it offering a two way integration with the leading GP software systems. This made managing referrals whilst working alongside GP practices a lot more efficient for Merton Connected.
Our robust reporting and analysis for all types of stakeholders mean managing cases regardless of the sector organisation is quicker, easier, and more effective.
Merton Connected began using our digital social prescribing platform in 2020 and due to their successes working with us, they are now also testing a version of our commissioners’ dashboards to track and monitor individual cases more effectively.
Outcomes:
Since working with us at Access Elemental Social Prescribing, Merton Connected have experienced great success in delivering guidance and support across the area, including improved time efficiencies and better patient outcomes.
Download our Social Prescribing across Primary Care guide to learn how to overcome the challenges of social prescribing
Team benefits
Merton Connected have found that using Access Elemental has not only improved individual’s social prescribing journeys, link workers, and other members of the team have hugely benefitted from the system too. See how a link worker has benefitted from using our social prescribing platfrom to enhance productivity and save time.
1. Improved Time Efficiencies
Merton Connected have been able to streamline their services effectively using our social prescribing software. Their social prescribing link workers have been able to manage their time more efficiently.
Having more time to spend on higher priority tasks has been really beneficial for Merton Connected. The replacement of Clinical Commissioning Groups with Integrated Care Systems in July this year means there will be more locally commissioned health based services. The increased time available for higher priority tasks means Merton Connected have the time needed to prepare for this change, and to be better prepared for the new influx of services that will be needed in a more sustainable way.
Using our platform has centralised all their information in one place and has prevented an increased amount of time being spent locating the specific data and information they need across multiple spreadsheets. Instead this has allowed social prescribers to have more time to spend with patients.
Merton Connected have also been able to use this saved time to identify gaps where the borough needs further support. They can recognise that due to the disparity of needs in different areas across the borough more activities need to be available to meet those needs.
2. Helps secure more funding
During Covid the disparity and difference in health inequalities across the Merton borough was clear. Many citizens didn’t have access to balconies or green spaces and were limited in where they could go to get fresh air in the numerous lockdowns we experienced.
Our platform made it easier for Merton Connected to access to their data in one place to make tracking and recording data easier. Because of this their service is now evidence driven which helps them secure funding for further projects.
Collecting and sharing this data through our platform allowed Merton Connected to start 8 green social prescribing projects. This has helped develop best practice to help reduce health inequalities, improve mental health and wellbeing for the people that need it, and reduce demand in the health and social care system.
“We love working with Access Elemental Social Prescribing and we love the software. Because of their good data we have been able to get more funding to recruit another link worker to continue building our capacity.”
Ben Halshacka, CEO at Merton Connected
3. Better Patient Outcomes
Merton connected announced in their 2021-2022 annual review they have made 2615 new referrals this year with the top three reasons for referral being:
- Mental Health 35.5%
- Financial Housing and Benefits 29.9%
- Social Isolation 19%
Our digital social prescribing platform has allowed Merton Connected to track individual health journeys and measure the impact of social prescribing using tools such as ONS Wellbeing Scale.
A survey conducted by Merton Connected asked 2246 of their patients a variety of questions to rank their wellbeing. From this survey it was clear there was an 68% improvement overall in patients’ ONS Wellbeing score this year. They also discovered that 70% of patients surveyed were satisfied with the service they had received and 70% felt happy with it. 67% of patients also experienced decreased anxiety.
Helping with Data
The Deputy Social Prescribing manager explains in the video how our social prescribing software helps collates, tracks, and monitors data to streamline their service and help users get the best outcomes from their social prescribing journeys.
Due to their more streamlined and more stabilised service they have been able to deliver their service to more patients, and because of this they have received brilliant feedback from their patients including:
Thank you for all your support. I don’t know how we would have got through the past few weeks without it.
The future of Merton Connected and Access Elemental Social Prescribing:
In the last 6 months alone Merton Connected had 1672 referrals to social prescribing programmes alone. In the last 6 months the main reasons for referrals have been:
- Mental health 29%
- Housing 15%
- Social isolation 15%
- Financial advice 14.5%
- Support for carers 11%
Even in the last month reasons for referrals have started to change again for Merton Connected. Mental health has still been the top reason for referral but financial advice has risen as the second top reason for referral at 17%.
It is clear to see that events out of our control have been major contributing factors for reasons for referral across Merton including the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis.
It has been great to see how easy they have been able to adapt their services with these external pressures and the progress and development Merton Connected have made since they started using our platform. We are thrilled to see how it is enabling them to continually expand and stabilise their service to best prepare, meet, and deliver the increase in demand for their services.
Our platform has allowed Merton Connected to put their patients first and by offering tools that make managing cases and referrals more efficient, patients’ wellbeing have been able to consistently improve. Their overall ONS Patient Wellbeing Score has improved significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels and they are now averaging at 85% across all their patients compared to 68.1% pre-pandemic.
We love that Merton Connected want to find new ways to support their local people, but equally their staff too. To do this they keep a log of compliments link workers have received after users have used their service. This log can then be accessed by any team member whenever they want to remind the team the great difference they make to individuals lives.
We cannot wait to see how they develop their service further and the feedback they will give us once they complete testing our commissioners dashboard. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with them, and develop their services further regardless of the sector they apply their services to.
Learn how our digital social prescribing platform can benefit your social prescribing service, and help you manage your service more efficiently, so you can concentrate on improving your patients’ outcomes.
Speak to us today and we can show you first-hand how we can track and monitor your data to ensure you are delivering the best quality care and support that your local community needs.
