REFERRER AWARENESS RAISING & ENGAGEMENT
A tried and tested means of increasing the number and quality of referrals is to meet with those that you are expecting to refer into the service. This can be done in a number of ways:
A virtual Teams meeting
A one-to-one meeting in the practice
A small practice meeting
Existing events such as GP protected learning time events
Holding your own awareness and engagement events
Here are some ideas of activities and information you could provide at any of these meetings/events - this could be in-person or virtually:
Develop a short video/presentation to help promote the benefits of DESMOND/structured education to your referrers, give advice on how to ‘sell’ attendance/registration, as well as description of the referral pathway
Refer to the information found in our article ‘Why Structured Education?’, which includes some of the latest evidence
Set up virtual meetings and ask your Educators to deliver part of the course, so potential referrers get a taste for the group and style of delivery that their patients will experience
Give your referrers a ‘guided tour’ of the patient side of MyDESMOND platform and the different programmes available
Design HCP shadowing posters to promote HCP referrers to see a group in action - here is an example from Nottinghamshire
Diabetes UK have developed a campaign called ‘Taking Control’ which can be found here – it contains information for patients and HCPs around diabetes education and may provide you with some helpful documents
Ask the referrers what they need to help increase their referrals
Create a practice/referrer pack that can be used for reference and promote this at these events, as well as the above leaflets. Ask your patient and HCP education champions to attend to share their experiences
Describe the referral pathway and forms so that their role in the process can be easily understood
Design and put together a small resource, such as a tent card, that they can have on their desks as a constant reminder (click here for a sample)
Follow up these events/meetings with a monthly email, newsletter or a postcard to keep it at the forefront of referrers’ minds when they see anyone with Type 2 diabetes - Here are some templates that you could use to adapt or take inspiration from - example newsletter template or Nottinghamshire professional newsletter example
Create a leader board of referrals by practice across your locality to encourage good practice; this could be included in monthly email updates/newsletter
Further reading
For more ideas and information, click on the following links:
HSJ: Structured group education vs diabetes
HSJ: Self-management programmes for diabetes patients
HSJ: Make self-management education work for you