COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
The evidence behind our work
There is a strong evidence base for Collaborative Practice and evaluations of our work demonstrate its positive impact on the health and resilience of both people and services.
Our most recent in-depth evaluation (supported by evidence from the UK Government’s Foresight Project and the New Economics Foundation) showed 216 types of activity led by health champions in 30 GP practices. Involvement in the activities brought about improvements in patients’ wellbeing and resilience. It increased their ability to adapt, cope and live well with long term conditions. And it helped them better understand how to use the services available.
94% of patients surveyed had improved mental health and wellbeing
95% of staff surveyed recommend and want to continue after the funded period has ended.
Evidence shows that patients involved in champion-led activities see significant improvements in mental health and wellbeing. There is overwhelming support from practice staff to sustain the work.
If early findings from our evaluation were replicated across the country we would see a future where:
The resilience of general practice is transformed so that it can cope with the reducing number of GPs in the system;
Prevention becomes the norm – an integrated part of the system, reducing the prevalence and incidence of socially determined disease by creating conditions where people are supported to prevent, manage and live well with long term conditions and improve their mental, social and physical health and wellbeing;
Local people work together with general practice, using a collective, bottom-up approach to deliver wellbeing in a community. Citizens become the ‘makers’ and ‘shapers’ of innovative new services enabling patients to adapt and self-manage in the face of social and emotional challenges, and;
Patients use services differently and the pattern of service use changes.
Read more in Altogether Better’s evaluation report ‘Working Together to Create Healthier People and Communities: Bringing citizens and services together in new conversations’.
A range of other independent evaluations and evidence reviews support the impact and effectiveness of collaborative practice:
