Innovator profile: ChatHealth ChatHealth gives young people easier access to services Eastern AHSN region is the first to reach 100 per cent coverage of text message-based confidential health advice service Thanks to 100% uptake of ChatHealth by NHS Trusts across our region, any young person in the East of England can now pick up a phone, send a message and start a confidential chat about any health-related topic with a nurse. There can be a stigma attached to accessing healthcare in traditional ways and services are inconsistently available across schools. Evidence also shows that young people feel more comfortable and confident relating sensitive issues via mobile technology, rather than in a face-to- face discussion with a healthcare professional. ChatHealth achieves this through a discreet text-message service that young people can use to get advice about any aspect of their physical or emotional health. The app was developed by a team from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. Team leader Jimmy Endicott was selected for a prestigious National Innovation Accelerator (NIA) fellowship. This programme is delivered by the AHSN Network and NHS England in partnership, and supports the uptake and spread of proven, impactful innovations across England’s NHS. ChatHealth has been shown to support greater efficiencies, with individual nurses able to provide services to many more young people. In the Eastern region, 351,000 young people have access to the service. “It allows us to express ourselves in ways we couldn’t express to our friends – to know it’s confidential makes me open up. Service user Endicott says: ‘We are delighted that the Eastern AHSN region is the first to reach 100% coverage. Young people aged 11-19, anywhere in the East, will have absolutely equitable access to confidential health advice and support just by sending a message from their phone. Providers in the region have been early adopters of this important new technology to communicate with schoolchildren and it shows a real appetite for proven innovations in the Eastern region.” ● Find out more about ChatHealth on the Just One Norfolk website - justonenorfolk.nhs.uk” Innovator profile: ChatHealth Thanks to 100% uptake of ChatHealth by NHS Trusts across our region, any young person in the East of England can now pick up a phone, send a message and start a confidential chat about any health-related topic with a nurse. There can be a stigma attached to accessing healthcare in traditional ways and services are inconsistently available across schools. Evidence also shows that young people feel more comfortable and confident relating sensitive issues via mobile technology, rather than in a face-to- face discussion with a healthcare professional. ChatHealth achieves this through a discreet text-message service that young people can use to get advice about any aspect of their physical or emotional health. The app was developed by a team from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. Team leader Jimmy Endicott was selected for a prestigious National Innovation Accelerator (NIA) fellowship. This programme is delivered by the AHSN Network and NHS England in partnership, and supports the uptake and spread of proven, impactful innovations across England’s NHS. ChatHealth has been shown to support greater efficiencies, with individual nurses able to provide services to many more young people. In the Eastern region, 351,000 young people have access to the service. “It allows us to express ourselves in ways we couldn’t express to our friends – to know it’s confidential ma”kes me open up. Service user Endicott says: ‘We are delighted that the Eastern AHSN region is the first to reach 100% coverage. Young people aged 11-19, anywhere in the East, will have absolutely equitable access to confidential health advice and support just by sending a message from their phone. Providers in the region have been early adopters of this important new technology to communicate with schoolchildren and it shows a real appetite for proven innovations in the Eastern region.” ● Find out more about ChatHealth on the Just One Norfolk website - justonenorfolk.nhs.uk ChatHealth gives young people easier access to services Eastern AHSN region is the first to reach 100 per cent coverage of text message-based confidential health advice service