Library and Knowledge Service: Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Contact name: Jane Roberts

Contact email: [email protected]

Date completed: September 2020

Short summary of the initiative/project

We created a COVID-19 Resource Hub on the website of the buzz Health and Wellbeing service, which is a public-facing service and works with a lot of third sector and community organisations. The hub signposts to trusted information on mental health, wellbeing and COVID-19 topics, as well as helplines and apps.

How did you get started?  Any tips to share?

At the beginning of lockdown, all mental health Trusts were required to set up a 24/7 helpline. The LKS was asked to find links to trusted information on a range of mental health and wellbeing topics, which the Trust helpline operators could have on hand to give out to callers who needed support in these areas. We divided the topics between the library team to search for information and we put these together in a document for them.

As we are part of the buzz Health and Wellbeing service, we were able to put this information on a dedicated page on their website to spread it more widely – the COVID-19 Resource Hub. We also added further topics and sections that were particularly relevant for communities in Manchester during the pandemic.

Who did you work with?

We worked with the Trust’s 24/7 helpline and the Health and Wellbeing Service staff to identify key areas of information which people would need. We also created some resources collaboratively with the Health and Wellbeing community development team to meet needs which they saw in the community (e.g. a ‘Getting Started with your Digital Device’ guide for older people who were self-isolating and a ‘Check Websites’ picture guide for people whose first language isn’t English). These were also added to the hub.

What happened? 

During the spring/summer of 2020, the COVID-19 Resource Hub was the 2nd most visited page on the website after the homepage. We used an online survey to gather some statements about how the COVID-19 Resource Hub was used and the comments we received included the following:

"[The helpline document] is a trusted reliable source which I know I don't need to double check the accuracy of so saved time. Also really useful to have all the info I needed in one place."

“it has provided up to date information in an easy one point access place”

“[It] ensured that residents received supporting regarding how to recognise correct and incorrect health information online.”

 

What next?

We are continuing to review and update the information on the resource hub every couple of months, and will review the need for the page to continue in the future as necessary. Some of the resources we created which are hosted on the page will be used more widely, for example the ‘Getting Started with your Digital Device’ is being translated into other languages and the mythbusting video has been added to our Better Information Programme training.

 

Page last reviewed: 8 December 2022
Next review due: 12 December 2023