Section 5: How the Gateshead MECC Approach Has Challenged Inequalities

Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is an approach that uses the many day-to-day interactions that organisations and individuals have with people as an opportunity to enhance health and wellbeing. MECC training provides staff, volunteers and community members with the skills to engage people in conversations about the benefits of behaviour change to boost physical and mental health and wellbeing. 

MECC has supported and empowered people from across all sectors to understand what inequalities are and the complexity interactions between different kinds of inequalities.

MECC has raised awareness within our most marginalised populations that inequalities are avoidable, as well as unfair. This has enabled participants to consider some of the challenges and solutions regarding the differences in the status of people's health based on where they live, lifestyle and access to services. 

Health Status:

Raising awareness of the differences in life expectancy across the borough using ward data has highlighted to local people the types of health conditions that impact upon their lives and what aspects they can take control of.

Access to Services:

MECC has enabled people to know how to sign post people to relevant and varied services that can support people with life generally and when in crisis. It also has discussed accessibility for the most marginalised and vulnerable communities

Behavioural Risk Factors:

MECC training embeds the key messages on how to have a conversation around alcohol, mental health, tobacco, physical activity. Our sessions on healthy weight, nutrition, food and mood, vitamins and minerals, menopause and drugs have enabled people to become competent as brief advisors and be aware of why behaviour change is a complex process and requires support and planning

Socio-economic Factors:

Income is a barrier that is discussed in every topic and the implication this has on inequalities. MECC discusses opportunities to gain support from local services and organisations as well as sharing ideas to help alleviate some of the issues regarding income for example: cooking on a budget and meal planning, free physical activities such as benefits of walking, wellbeing ideas that are local and free. 

Geography:

MECC helps local people and local services consider their environment and what is available, which often highlights gaps in provision as well as some of the factors that contribute towards lifestyle choices and influences of standard of living. The neighbourhoods where MECC organisations deliver their support are across all the most deprived areas of Gateshead.

Specific Characteristics:

Most of the challenges for MECC and inequalities come from the specific characteristics and differences in healthy life expectancy and disability free life expectancy. Many of the MECC trained organisations use a human approach to support their community members with various long-term conditions, disabilities, diverse ethnicities, gender focused or age specific requirements. They have the expertise to adapt their methodology and resources to be suitable for brief interventions but also for more extended and expert interventions. Adapting key Public health information for dissemination by MECC organisations has taken 3 years of building two-way trust, respect and rapport to become a partnership approach.

Wider Determinants of Health:

Income, housing, transport, education, environment and employment are the principal drivers for most MECC organisations. They support people daily with the impacts they experience as a consequence of general life. The influence of high concentrations of fast food outlets, fuel poverty, lower educational attainments, low income and the effects from high levels of anti-social behaviour in the communities where they live, all result in poorer mental, physical health and social health. 

Skills4 Work Gateshead Ltd. supports young adults aged 16 to 30 years. Their focus is to assist these young adults with a variety of disabilities and/or mental health conditions to make the difficult transition from education to the workplace and maintain positive mental wellbeing. Skills4Work were one of the first organisations to participate in the Gateshead MECC training programme. Three members of the group attended the MECC training programme in its entirety:  

• What Is MECC  

• Behaviour change principles  

• Motivational interviewing techniques  

• 5 ways to wellbeing  

• Physical activity  

• Healthy weight  

• Nutrition  

• Have a word about alcohol  

• Tobacco awareness  

• Drugs awareness  

The group then used the information gained in these training sessions to adapt weekly activities for their clients, to include key messages from these sessions. These include portion sizes when trying to reduce weight gain, a rainbow of colour when cooking together to balance their vitamin and mineral intake and behaviour change support techniques when helping each other to make increase their physical activity levels.

After the first round of training was completed, discussions occurred to enable more bespoke workshops to be held, these included nutrition quizzes, a focus on mental health through the Connect 5 training programme, menopause awareness and linking mental health to physical activity with physical minds training.

The final MECC training opportunity permitted several members of the group to participate in the Train The Trainer programme which would enable them to train other members of their group on the MECC principles and methods. 

Participation in the MECC programme has expanded the support and opportunities that organisations like Skills4Work have access to through the partnership, these have included:

Because of the MECC partnership meetings, Skills4Work have been introduced to key workers at the QE. This enabled a workshop from Infection control team at the hospital, to teach the young adults about hand hygiene in a fun and interactive way that they now remember.

Skills4Work now have access to work placements at the QE as a consequence of introductions through partnership working.

Skills4Work met members of the Gateshead Council Employment Services team, who were also MECC trained. Support for placements, workshops and funding has been accessed by Skills4work group members.

North East Energy Action (NEA) were invited to a MECC event and because of this NEA were able to support three families linked to Skills4Work with fuel poverty.

MECC has linked Skills4work with two organisations who support LGBTQ communities, and this has raised awareness to their members of the support available to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community members. 

Section 6: Inequalities and COVID-19