The Woodseats Medical Centre in Sheffield has been working with the organisers of the Working Win health led employment trial to identify patients who may benefit from it.
By referring 63 patients since the beginning of January, the practice is helping people who are living with mental or physical ill health to stay in work or get into appropriate employment.
The practice searched its records to identify the patients who would be eligible to take part in the trial. The Working Win team then took on the task of writing and texting the patients in order to let them know that help to get into or stay in work is available, this meant they had some knowledge of the trial before they visited the practice.
Wendy Stammers, GP Partner at the Woodseats Medical Centre, said:
“We were given a search criteria to identify patients which may be eligible to attend the study.
“We had a dedicated Working Win professional who has been supporting the practice which has meant that we have had to do a minimal amount of work to get this up and running.
“The support that Working Win provides is fantastic and all we need to do is just briefly mention the trial to the patient. They can then self refer [to the trial] or if they would rather we can simply send their details to the Working Win team and they just take it all on from there.
“It’s something we can offer to our patients at those times when we feel helpless - this is something positive and it brings about really great results.”
Working Win is an experimental randomised control trial, which covers South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw and is testing a new employment support service for people who are living with physical or mental ill health. People who take part will be randomly placed into one of two research groups. One group will receive the new service and the other group will be provided with information about existing services in their area. The trial aims to find out how good this new service is at helping people to find and stay in work. South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw is one of only two places in the UK trialling the approach.
See the video below where GP Wendy Stammers talks more about the approach of Woodseats Medical Centre.