We were impressed by the quality of projects submitted for our Evidence into Practice Call 2024, and we plan to keep in touch with the teams to monitor ongoing developments and opportunities for working together.

Here are some of the projects and organisations we suggest are ‘ones to watch’…

CHERIE: Community Health Education, scReenIng and prevention

People who need healthcare the most tend to be the least likely to access it. The CHERIE model aims to support people through community health education, outreach disease screening and health prevention services. This model helped the regional vaccination teams vaccinate reluctant individuals and communities against the flu and Covid-19.

Community health clinics delivered by Caafi Health continue to identify and support people at risk of diabetes and heart disease, who are reluctant or struggling to engage with GP services.

Watch this video to find out more.

For more information on CHERIE, please email Ilhem.berrou@uwe.ac.uk.

INTENT: an evidence-based smoking and vaping prevention programme for secondary school students in the UK

Despite the decline of smoking rates in young people in the UK, it remains the single largest preventable cause of death in society. Simultaneously, vaping rates in young people has rapidly increased and is cause for concern due to its unknown long-term risks.

INTENT is an evidence-based smoking and vaping prevention programme for secondary school students based on 20 years of research. It combines information about smoking and vaping, as well as specific behaviour change methodology. INTENT is now being delivered to schools across the UK.

Find out more about the INTENT programme here and for more information, please email sally.good@evidencetoimpact.com.

The Living Well with Dementia programme (LivDem)

Every year in the UK, around 225,000 people are diagnosed with dementia. People rarely get a chance to talk about what is happening to them. This can impact how they manage and come to terms with their diagnosis.

LivDem groups give people the space to talk about and adjust to their diagnosis. UWE Bristol trains the dementia workforce to deliver LivDem groups in their communities, with over 200 people trained so far to be LivDem course facilitators.

Find out more about LivDem here and for more information, please email livdem@uwe.ac.uk.

Lung Ultrasound innovation project: spreading the waves

The use of lung ultrasound (LUS) by physiotherapists within a respiratory assessment is growing dramatically. However, there remain low numbers of physiotherapy mentors, with reliance on medics/radiographers to fulfil this role, which often prolongs the accreditation period.

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust offered a local mobile mentorship scheme to increase the number of accredited LUS mentors who can then support future training of others. This project proposed a wider rollout of the mobile mentorship scheme to support other trusts across the South West Network.

For more information, please email Ema Swingwood, Consultant Physiotherapist at ema.swingwood@uhbw.nhs.uk.

Musculoskeletal Assessment and Advice Service

Access to MSK Therapy services and long waits is a growing challenge in the NHS.

The service at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust uniquely combines risk stratification and implementation of patient-initiated follow-up, providing earlier access for MSK patients to screening, signposting, advice and management.

By offering sooner, one-off, face-to-face appointments, serious pathologies have been identified much earlier and wait times and wait lists have been reduced by more than half, over 12 months. 80% of patients report improvements in pain and quality of life following the one-off intervention.

Download this presentation to find out more or contact Sam Bailey, Head of Outpatients, Therapies at sam.bailey3@nhs.net.

Nutriri – Weight Neutral Triage

Health and behaviour cannot be assessed on appearance, and doing so is causing harm. Addressing weight stigma requires holistic approaches that shift focus from blaming individuals to improving equitable access for all. Improving access to healthcare, movement, nutrition, reducing alcohol and smoking can enhance health, regardless of weight change.

VCSE Nutriri has been built by volunteers sharing their lived and living experiences of ‘weight talk’ in healthcare, family and community. Nutriri’s ‘Weight Neutral Triage’ system has been designed to improve care and trust,  while the co-learning hub is a digital community that centres on both workforce and citizen’s lived experiences.

Find out more here or email Helen James, Lived Experience Founder of Nutriri and helen@nutriri.org. Please copy Support Workers heathereggins@nutriri.org and nicola@nutriri.org in all communications to Helen James.

Prospect Hospice – administration of end of life medication by family carers

A key aim in palliative and end-of-life care is to ensure people are peaceful and comfortable at the end of life. It is also important to empower relatives to care for a dying loved one effectively and they will have comfort knowing their loved one is peaceful.

Some patients were not receiving prompt administration of medication to manage symptoms at the end of life at home due to delays in community staff arriving to administer this – often a delay of 2-3 hours. This caused distress for the patient and their family. In some cases, this resulted in hospital or hospice admission, usually by ambulance.

Prospect Hospice created an opportunity for family members to take part in an individual training programme, enabling them to administer this medication to reduce delays, including a thorough competency assessment with remote hospice-based staff support.

To find out more, contact Carolyn Bell, Director of Patient Services, at carolynbell@prospect-hospice.net.

REtirement in ACTion (REACT)

Based on a successful three-centre, fully-evidenced research study (published in the Lancet Public Health), Retirement in ACTion (REACT) is a community-based intervention that identifies people with reduced mobility and increasing frailty.

It provides strength and balance sessions focused on self-management and maintaining independence, reducing fall risk and increasing motivation to be active.

Importantly REACT incorporates a social session to tackle loneliness and social isolation and to promote well-being. REACT is being delivered in East and Central Bristol and is receiving extremely positive feedback from participants.

The REACT community rollout is supported by Bristol Health Partners Active Lives Health Integration Team (HIT) working in partnership with Age UK Bristol, which is collaborating with Everyone Active Sports and Leisure Management Ltd and other provider organisations and freelance instructors.

Find out more here or email hello@bristol.ac.uk.

SPLASH – Somerset Preschool Lifestyle Activity and Skills for self Help

The SPLASH programme addresses rising childhood obesity in Somerset by supporting families with children under five years living with very severe obesity or severe obesity with co-morbidities over 12 months.

The multi-disciplinary team at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust provides compassionate, family-centred, early intervention, tailored to each family’s circumstances to support healthier lifestyle habits.

SPLASH has achieved high engagement and supported improved parental confidence and children’s quality of life. It has also led to improved medical outcomes and maintained or reduced weight gain, supporting healthy growth.

Find out more here or email splash@somersetft.nhs.uk.

The Peer Partnership

The Peer Partnership works with healthcare providers to implement peer support programmes for people living with long-term health conditions as part of their patient pathway, providing psychosocial care for supporting long-term self-management. They do this by delivering services directly or by providing consultancy for healthcare services to implement programmes in-house.

The Peer Partnership has delivered and supported peer programmes for HIV, type 2 diabetes, long COVID, stroke survivors in both VCSE and NHS environments and have developed proposals for hypertension, COPD, menopause, CFS/ME and many more areas.

Find out more here or email Sean Hourigan, Development and Training Manager, at seanhourigan@peerpartnership.org.