We are looking for organisations to help engage key audiences in the development of a new resource to support digital health and care.
Discover Digital aims to raise awareness of digital tools which promote health and wellbeing. Between 2018 – 2019, the ALLIANCE held events across Scotland to exhibit a variety of digital health, care and wellbeing tools. The general public were invited to attend these events free of charge. Learning from these events is captured in our yearly reports: Discover Digital: for your health and wellbeing (2018) and Discover Digital: self management and care (2019).
The experience of 2020 has thrown into the limelight the importance of digital tools for health and wellbeing as well as the need for a different approach to raising awareness of these. We therefore set to explore the creation of a permanent Discover Digital source of information, which could be available digitally or in analogue form, for Scotland’s citizens who wish to understand how to better use technology and digital tools in their self management and in their health and care interactions.
The ALLIANCE drafted a document to cover the topics of digital self management, technology enabled care and digital tools for interacting with the NHS and social care, as well as signposting to trusted tools and services. We felt it was particularly important for this document to cover the general principles and potential benefits of digital health and care, focusing on skills and confidence first, before inviting users to find out what tools are already out there.
We are now looking for organisations who could help us bring this content to a varied audience for feedback and further iteration. We want to understand people’s needs with regards to digital health and care skills, review whether the existing content meets these needs and hear what improvements could be made.
The ALLIANCE can offer small grants to up to five organisations to carry out this engagement, amounting to a maximum of £1,750 for each organisation. This is intended to cover any resource and costs incurred by the organisation delivering the engagement. We are aware that third sector organisations, grassroots groups and communities are often best placed to hold these conversations, but might not have the necessary resource in these testing times.
Organisations would be expected to carry out engagement between April and June, with a report on the work carried out and key feedback to be returned to the ALLIANCE by 30 June 2021.
We are particularly interested in hearing from organisations working with one or more of the following groups:
- people and families on low incomes
- people from ethnic minority communities
- care leavers
- disabled people or people with long term conditions
- people who have communication support needs
- people who experience sensory loss
- older people
- people who live in remote communities
Organisations interested in being part of this work can register their interest by filling in our short application form and emailing it to finance@alliance-scotland.org.uk. The application should illustrate:
- the type of engagement you would like to carry out
- who your intended audience is
- how you would carry out the engagement and gather feedback
- members of staff leading on the work
- any financial support required, up to £1,750.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on 22 March 2021. Organisations will be informed of the outcome of their application by 9 April 2021.
