Digital Health: Reaching the furthest first
Literally searching through bushes to find them.
The aim of the NHS Widening Digital Participation (WDP) project is to pilot twenty different approaches to digital inclusion in healthcare that reach the furthest first.
Digital inclusion and healthcare are things that we know a lot about at Good Things Foundation having worked on the first phase of NHS WDP. But the term ‘furthest first’ is much harder to define.
Earlier this month, Emily and I were in Hastings working with the lead Pathfinder partner, Seaview who provide practical services for the homeless and insecurely housed.
It was during this visit that we found out just what reaching the furthest first looks like.
We had 2 goals for our visit to Hastings:
- Work with the team at Seaview to map out the new digital inclusion service models that they will be experimenting with over the next 12 months.
- Carry out user research by talking to some of their service users and observing some of the support they offer first hand.
When we arrived, we joined the service users for an amazing roast dinner in the day centre, talking to some them who come to Seaview every day for their £1 hot meal.
Reaching the furthest first
For the second part of our research we were picked up at 4am in the morning by the Seaview Outreach Team. They go out at least 3 early mornings and 1 afternoon a week to locate and check in with all of the rough sleepers that they support.
The team look for the rough sleepers that they know from the Seaview day centre. They’ve spent time with them and built up enough trust that they’re willing to share where they are sleeping.
On their rounds, they’ll also often meet rough sleepers who are new to the area or who are new to sleeping rough. They may come across them by looking in places that they know rough sleepers go or people in the community or professionals will raise a Streetlink Alert and the team will go out and make a welfare check.
We started down on the seafront checking in with the people who were spending their night in the various bus shelters and underpasses along the promenade.
We then moved on to the town centre — a couple of people sleeping in doorways of local businesses and by the train station.
So far, this is what we were expecting. But it turns out that we had a very misinformed understanding of what rough sleeping looks like.
The second half our our morning was where our eyes were really opened.
We walked down a dark muddy path and came to a small opening in a fence. One of the Outreach Team jumped up on the wall and crawled through into the woods behind to find 2 people who usually sleep there.
Next stop was the clifftop — two people sleeping in the dense bushes at the edge of the cliff.
Over the course of 3 hours, we covered around 14 miles, checking under the pier, behind shopping centres, amongst the fishing boats and in caves.
Some of the rough sleepers are so far off the beaten track, without Seaview, nobody would ever know they were there. They don’t want to be found by the authorities or anyone else for that matter. But they really appreciate the work that the team at Seaview do and know that they will come and check in with them without prejudice.
Trying to convince them to engage with digital and their health is a huge challenge but one that the team at Seaview know is vital. And the NHS WDP project is giving them a real opportunity to do so.
The sad truth is, although these are people are hard to reach, they aren’t the furthest — these are the people that have taken a step forward by engaging with Seaview. There are many more out there who aren’t even at that stage yet.
Seaview are working tirelessly to reach these people and support them towards a more inclusive future.
We learned a lot during our time at Seaview but to pick three things that really stuck with us, they are:
- Homelessness is much bigger than what you see on the streets.
- The smallest things can mean the most — Just knowing someone cares whether your alive and well is something that most people will take for granted.
- The rough sleeper community are early risers — the Outreach Team has to be out at 4am so they can see everyone before they’re moved on.
I’ll be sharing more about the Hastings Pathfinder over the coming months.
In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about the NHS Widening Digital Participation project or our design approach, get in touch — tim@goodthingsfoundation.org.
