Cyrenians Digital Inclusion - Health and Care (360G-SCVO-a13N200000CkBb7IAF)

We’re excited about the prospect of expanding out current Digital Pioneers projects to focus more on the health and care services as it’s something that we have begun to work on but this project would enable the team to be more confident and provide our clients with more benefits from their journey to digital literacy. Self-care Our clients are all living with historical trauma and this has impacted on their mental health in a variety of ways. Most of our clients come to us in a state of crisis with their mental health and our work is often to help them stabilise their situation, to put them on a more even keel and remove the barriers that are stopping them to progress. However, we feel that there is more that we could do, and learn, about supporting clients to sustain their improved mental health once they’ve stopped working with us and believe that utilising online self-help support could be a vital way or enabling clients to maintain their position. By supporting individuals to self-manage their mental health conditions with access to quality self-management and psychological self-help information we would aim to leave our clients better prepared to look after their own mental health and have less need to access health and care services or, indeed, to come back to Cyrenians for further support. We have begun to support clients towards online self-help through NHS resources such as Every Mind Matters self-help guides and tools and the Overcoming website but we would be keen to build on this knowledge by having some time to review and research other resources that could be useful in this area. We would also investigate, and learn from other Digital Pioneers Progress Fund providers to identify training in the online self-help area for our digital trainers to be able to share this with our clients. Accessing Health and Care benefits through digitalWe know that supporting someone to be comfortable and confident in the digital space can have many benefits towards their health and care. As well as mental health self-care, we will also support individuals to find and access appropriate service where they need them. The benefits can include: Access to information – health information online including resources on various conditions, treatment options and preventive measures, empowering people to make informed decisions about their health and care Health tracking and Management Convenience and efficiency – allowing clients to consult GPs and other healthcare professionals remotely Appointment scheduling and prescription refills – allows clients to schedule appointments with GPs, Physiotherapists, Counsellors and other healthcare providers and request prescription refills online, streamlining admin and reducing the need for in-person visits Social support and community engagement – helps clients access online support groups, forums and social networks connecting with others facing similar health challenges Reducing health inequalities – supporting currently underserved communities such as many of our clients who face barriers to traditional healthcare access. Empowerment and engagement – by enabling digital inclusion our clients are able to take an active role in managing their health and care needs.