This project allowed us to create Digital Health Devon and offer free digital training in Devon to show people how to use the internet to access local health, social care and wellbeing resources such as appointment-booking, prescription-ordering and online consultation services.
Digital Health Devon grew from a ‘digital inclusion’ pilot project run in 2018 by Healthwatch Torbay and funded by Ageing Well Torbay and the Big Lottery Fund. It consisted of:
- Nearly 300 hundred people trained via public ‘digital drop in’ sessions held at various public venues, including GP Practices, libraries and community centres.
- 600+ training booklets distributed out into the community.
- Over seven hundred unique visits to the online version of the training – which included ‘how-to’ video guides and step by step screenshot guides.
In response to the pilot project’s impact, it won a national ‘Highly Commended’ award in the ‘Giving people the advice and information they need’ category at the 2018 National Healthwatch Excellence Awards.
Project Expansion
Following a successful bid for European Regional Development Funding in 2019, Digital Health Devon expanded this pilot project to incorporate the wider Devon area, hosting digital ‘drop in’ sessions at GP Practices and select community venues with the support of further funding from the NHS in Devon.
We revitalised our online training section and redeveloped it into a tool which offers people the chance to complete a free online training course in their own time, from the comfort of their own device and become a community ‘Digital Health Devon’ Champion. This was available by visiting www.digitalhealthdevon.co.uk and registering.
Anyone completing a module section wass awarded a downloadable ‘Digital Health Devon’ certificate. Those working for a frontline organisation and sharing the training with clients achieve Digital ‘Champion’ status, along with a special champion certificate and Digital Champion window sticker kite mark.
How did it go?
Digital Health Devon offered free online training to anyone interested in knowing more about how to access local health, social care and wellbeing services using the internet. This includes employees and volunteers at any organisation (including the 137 Devon GP Practices) that supports the public. In 2019 we:
- Developed the Digital Health Devon brand and created a suite of branded marketing, project material, training guides and digital platforms for use by citizens, trainers and providers for educational purposes in a variety of accessible formats.
- Built a network of community trainers across the county, including a unique cohort of healthcare students at Plymouth University, who supported public digital drop-in Sessions throughout Devon.
- Supported or hosted 127 digital drop-in sessions throughout the county for local residents and clients.
- Gained over 200 registered users on the Digital Health Devon website, who completed nearly 600 modules. Many of these are frontline workers from GP Practices and community organisations who have been sharing the training with the public. According to feedback survey data, we expect the training to be shared with over 6,000 people in Devon.
COVID-19
In 2020 we received a funding extension from the NHS Devon Digital Accelerator Project to continue our work in Devon, but in March we were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, it meant we were unable to run public drop-in sessions, so we began looking at different ways to offer support for people to help with their digital queries remotely.
We made all our e-learning resource pages open and free to use without the need to register and added a unique search feature option which allows people to filter by location or by category. The main categories of learning resources currently available are: General Online Advice, GP Services, Hospital Services, Mental Health Services, Other NHS Services, Other Useful Resources, and Providing Feedback.
In August 2020 our volunteers began offering remote support to people from their own homes in line with governmental coronavirus restrictions. This included 1-to-1 advice and guidance either over the phone, via email or webchat and also regular ‘virtual’ drop-in sessions using online video webinar tool Zoom, where volunteers give a brief demonstration of the Digital Health Devon website and answer any queries raised by attendees.
