Insignia Health and Elemental partner to promote health activation through social prescribing

PORTLAND, Ore. - May 2, 2019 - PRLog -- Patient activation is defined as an individual's knowledge, skill, and confidence for managing their health and health care, and is designed to help better understand patients' capabilities and motivation for self-managing their health and well-being.

Using their Core social prescribing platform, Elemental customers can now promote self care by co-creating social prescribing plans with patients using the outcomes of PAM assessments.

With integration into Insignia's activation and analytics system, Elemental customers can better predict future emergency department visits, hospital admissions and readmissions, medication adherence, GP attendances and better support decision making for those with long term conditions.

The Roots of Health

For over 70 years, the NHS has played a vital role in caring for the nation. However, as people continue to live with long term conditions, it has become clear that the roots of health lie not in hospitals or GP surgeries, but in people and communities. As a result, a more proactive, holistic and personalised approach is required.

Recognising that people's health is determined primarily by a range of social, economic and environmental factors, social prescribing has the potential to address such issues by seeking to address people's needs in a holistic way and support individuals to take greater control of their own health.

PAM^® - Patient Activation Measure^®

PAM is a validated, licensed survey that measures people's knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their own wellbeing. It is widely recognised that tailoring care plans according to PAM score contributes to assessing a patient's ability to self care so that the appropriate support can be planned with the individual, leading to improved wellbeing and reduced pressures on emergency care.

Supporting Self Care

Additionally, PAM can now be used within Elemental to tailor interventions to individual needs, significantly increasing the likelihood that people will continue to engage in social prescribing programmes and services which contribute to improved health and wellbeing.

Within the Elemental Core platform, nominated personnel in social prescribing projects can conduct the PAM survey with individuals to identify their activation levels along a continuum, ranging from Level 1 (disengaged and overwhelmed) to Level 4 (maintaining behaviours and pushing further).

Speaking about the partnership, Elemental Co-Founder Jennifer Neff said, "The partnership with Insignia Health presents a major milestone for Elemental and for shared decision making. As former community development workers, we're passionate about empowering individuals to take a more active role in their health and wellbeing and become better at self-management. The Department of Health suggests that two thirds of premature deaths in the UK are entirely avoidable. This means that the more effective we become at understanding our health risks and making good lifestyle choices, the more likely we are to take control of what makes us healthier and happier."

Not only does PAM give providers and Link Workers insight into how to effectively support individuals, but it also helps to:

●     Empower people to manage their own health and avoid complications
●     Save time and money by allocating resources efficiently
●     Progress individuals from disengaged to activated in non-clinical support
●     Inform commissioners about the kinds of interventions needed, especially for those with low levels of activation who will benefit most
●     Encourage individuals to participate more fully in the management of their own health and care through shared decision making
●     Create better outcomes by introducing health-related behaviours
●     Deliver on personalised care targets, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan

Chris Delaney, CEO of Insignia Health added, "Increasingly primary and secondary care are turning to social prescribing to help support patients.  Insignia are seeing an increase in the social sector being used to support patients in lower activation who can benefit the most from greater advocacy in support of their health.  Integration with Elemental will significantly improve the connectivity of PAM insights between providers and the social sector."

Ready to start and lead the way

Following the announcement, Care Merseyside will be one of Elemental's first customers to access PAM from within the Elemental Core platform. The Towerhill Community Centre social prescribing programme will now be able to increase activation within their social prescribing programmes and service, create tailored support plans, and track progress over time.

Cathy Connolly, Community Programme Lead, Care Merseyside said, "The ability to access PAM from within Elemental's Core platform will add increased value and allow people with long term conditions to be empowered to manage their health and wellbeing. It will also allow individuals to take ownership of their pathway to the best possible life choices and outcomes through social prescribing. It is a natural progression in the triage approach we currently use and we are excited by the announcement."

About Elemental

Elemental is a tech for good company led by former community development workers. Elemental helps organisations all around the world to enhance the impact of their social prescribing programmes via their award winning portfolio of digital social prescribing products and consultancy services. Elemental is bridging the gap between health, housing and the community with a range of social prescribing solutions designed to support the strategy and practice of self care and independence.

About Insignia Health

Insignia Health specialises in helping health systems, health plans, hospitals, care management services, and other organizations assess patient activation and develop strategies for helping individuals become more successful managers of their health and health care. The Patient Activation Measure® and over 15 years of health activation research form the cornerstone of a complementary suite of solutions that enable clinicians, coaches and population health providers to improve health outcomes and lower costs. Today, Insignia Health supports health activation efforts of more than 250 organizations around the world. https://www.insigniahealth.com/