What is MECC Link?
What is MECC?
MECC stands for Making Every Contact Count. It enables organisations and individuals to develop and use a different approach to working with people to address health and wellbeing. Telling people what to do is not the most effective way to help them change. Making Every Contact Count is about altering how we interact with people through learning how to recognise opportunities to talk to people about their wellbeing.
Who is MECC for?
- Everyone
- People who have contact with individuals who experience health and wellbeing issues
- People who may have the opportunity to talk about health and wellbeing to others
Open questions
The aim of using an 'open question' is that you don't receive back a simple YES/NO response. The examples below illustrate open and closed questions:
Open question "What would best suit you to make a change?"
Closed question "Do you want to make a change?"
Open question "What has worked for you before?"
Closed Question "Has anything worked before?"
Open questions should begin with:
- What
- Why
- Who
- When
- How
What is MECC Link?
MECC Link is a simple but flexible online tool that has been carefully designed to support an approach to positive behaviour change called Making Every Contact Count (MECC). MECC Link helps you to raise awareness, motivate and signpost people to help them to improve their health and wellbeing. It gives you access to a full range of signposting information for health improvement, including self-care and national and local support services... and it does this all-in-one place by providing:
- Easily accessible information on key healthy lifestyle topics;
- Suggested open questions - using the Ask, Assist, Act model;
- Information on a range of primary self-care tools and resources;
- Signposting to recommended national and local support services.
How does MECC Link work?
MECC Link is a mobile/tablet enabled website designed in recognition that MECC conversations are often opportunistic. Once you have selected 'Your Topic' you can then access a list of positive actions that people can take to improve their health and wellbeing.
You can use the ASK, ASSIST and ACT section (Very Brief Intervention) to help support your conversations.
Or you can go to a range of primary signposting information on self care, national and local support services.
MECC Link as an App
MECC Link is also available as a Progressive Web App (PWA) for your Android and Apple mobile devices. By adding MECC link to the home page of your mobile phone, you can access all the content offline as well as online, which is great for those times you can’t get a good phone signal!
The good news is that you don't need to install MECC Link from Google play or the App Store. A progressive web app is installed when you add the shortcut to your home screen.
For Apple users
To put a MECC Link shortcut on your Home screen:
1) Open up www.mecclink.co.uk on Safari
2) Tap the Share button in Safari
3) Tap the icon labelled Add to Home Screen
4) Tap Add in the upper-right corner.
You can now launch the PWA from your Home screen by tapping MECC Link icon.
For Android users
To put a MECC Link shortcut on your Home screen:
1) Open up www.mecclink.co.uk on your internet browser
2) If this is the first time you have visited MECC Link from your mobile or tablet you will be prompted with an option to: 'Add MECC Link to your home screen'
3) If you select Yes, a shortcut will be added to your home screen.
You can now launch the PWA from your Home screen by tapping the MECC Link icon.