Publish date: 11 August 2022

Mersey Care’s clinicians could benefit from new software which will allow them to refer patients directly to social prescribing services provided by The Life Rooms – freeing up more appointment time.

As part of a pilot, the Trust’s Early Intervention Team, Recovery Teams and Crisis Resolution Home Teams, all of whom have been working closely on the project with the Life Rooms, are collaborating with Access HSC, the provider of Rio EPR, and Elemental social prescribing software to test integrating  the two systems together.

The integration is expected to free up clinician, allowing more people to be seen by mental health clinicians and reduce the backlog in services. Currently, many mental health clinicians are spending a significant amount of time prescribing social support, potentially impacting the number of patients they can see.

The system will also ensure sensitive information is not shared inappropriately, the social prescribing teams at The Life Rooms, now operating across three main locations and 20 mobile sites,  will only have access to the information needed to handle to referral. Clinicians will be able to track services and monitor outcomes, giving them confidence their patients are being referred to appropriate services.

For more information please email: Gary.Thorpe@merseycare.nhs.uk and Laura.Moore@merseycare.nhs.uk