Making Every Contact Count (MECC) in Hackney & City - Online Training

Who is the training is for?

The course is for anyone who works or volunteers in the City of London or in the London Borough of Hackney (Council staff, NHS, Voluntary sector organisations, Homerton or ELFT) and and has opportunities to have conversations with others about issues that affect their health and wellbeing.

What’s covered in the course?

The session aims to build confidence, knowledge and skills required for good conversations and provide participants with the opportunity to actively engage and practice various scenarios, as well as resources specific to supporting people to take better care of their health and wellbeing. It will:

• Enable participants to reflect on and share experiences of opportunistic conversations about health and wellbeing issues
• Reflect on what they do well, what skills make for a good conversation, and highlight any challenges and areas for development
• Review MECC principles and core skills: being person-centred; collaborative; using open questions, active listening, focussing on strengths, and helpful summaries; and working within the 3As model (Ask-Advise-Assist)
• Introduce resources that support good conversations, including basic advice and messaging on a range of topics and signposting
• Reflect on how good conversation skills can be embedded into day-to-day practice.

With its strong emphasis on core communication skills, the course also provides excellent foundation-level training for staff who plan to engage in more specialist training in areas such as: domestic violence; mental health first aid; and motivational interviewing.

Learning outcomes

After completing the training, you will be able to:

• Understand the range of factors that influence residents’ health and wellbeing in City & Hackney
• Be ready to engage residents in short conversations about these issues
• Draw on a range of talking skills that help a good conversation
• Be able to find information, tools and services to help people improve their health and wellbeing

Course outline

Each session covers the following modules:

• What is MECC?
• Health and wellbeing in City & Hackney
• Good conversation skills
• 3As: Ask-Assist–Act
• Resources to help you

Course delivery

A standard session is 2 hours delivered online via Zoom and offers theory as well as case studies and interaction. We can also support any special requirements such as visual or audio impairments, or translation from English. Please get in touch via meccsupport@smgateway.co.uk to discuss any needs.

We can also organise and co-design MECC sessions with specific topics for your team, including in-person and Train the Trainer modules in order to support you to deliver MECC training. Please email meccsupport@smgateway.co.uk to discuss.