Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) has worked with Public Health England (PHE) and University of Brighton to update its Making Every Contact Count (MECC) elearning programme.

This resource, comprising four elearning sessions, is intended for anyone who has contact with people to “Make Every Contact Count” and develop public health knowledge. Based on feedback from learners, each of the four sessions have been reviewed and now benefit from revised and additional content with a focus on mental health. The template of the programme has also been updated.

In addition to the updated content, the MECC elearning programme has now received accreditation from The University of Brighton. The MECC elearning programme is already accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).

Dr Charlotte Ramage and Marianne Willmer from University of Brighton, said: “It has been a positive experience working with the PHE and HEE team. They have been inclusive and responsive to ideas throughout in the development of the online MECC programme. The elearning public health initiative has been carefully constructed to appeal to its widest possible audience. By broadening accessibility, we hope the end users feel confident to discuss the health of colleagues in their team and the general public and embrace the health messages for their own health and wellbeing.”

MECC is an approach to behaviour change that utilises the millions of day-to-day interactions that organisations and people have with other people to support them in making positive changes to their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

MECC enables the opportunistic delivery of consistent and concise healthy lifestyle information and enables individuals to engage in conversations about their health at scale across organisations and populations. Drawing on behaviour change evidence, the approach maximises the opportunity within routine health and care interactions for a brief or very brief discussion on health and wellbeing factors.

A MECC interaction takes a matter of minutes and is not intended to add to the busy workloads of healthcare professionals and the wider workforce, rather it is structured to fit into and complement existing professional clinical, care and social engagement approaches.

The wider MECC elearning programme is designed to support learners in developing an understanding of public health and the factors that impact on a person’s health and wellbeing, emphasising how asking questions and listening effectively to people is a vital role for us all.

To access the free Making Every Contact Count elearning programme and view the updated sessions, please visit: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/making-every-contact-count/.