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HARRI bus changing lives in Lancashire and South Cumbria

Type: Case Study

Colleagues from LSCFT reflect on their initiative to centre individuals within the care they receive.

At Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) (this link will take you away from our website), we strive to put our service users at the heart of everything we do.

We want to make sure our care is person-centred, effective and supports recovery and wellbeing.

This means giving people the opportunity to access services in all walks of life, including when they are out and about.

Maria Nelligan, Chief Nurse & Quality Officer at LSCft, said: “Person-centred care needs to reflect people’s individual health care journey and engaging with our communities is of utmost importance to this.”

This is why we have our HARRI bus(this link will take you away from our website) – our health and wellbeing engagement vehicle. HARRI stands for Health, Advice, Recovery, Resilience, and Information and is regularly seen travelling around Lancashire & South Cumbria engaging with communities to understand what matters to the individuals living in that area.

Hasan Sidat is LSCft’s Senior Operational Manager for the HARRI bus.

Hasan said: “A key advantage of HARRI is that the model is a co-delivery partnership. Unlike previously adopted campaigns which had a narrow focus, with one service or organisation, HARRI has a unique approach as the offer is made up of multiple agencies working together.

“This allows HARRI to offer advice and guidance for a wider range of issues, and reach a greater number of disadvantaged communities than would be possible with LSCFT staff alone.”

Since its introduction, our HARRI bus has travelled to 107 locations and met with 4,100 people.

Hasan continued: “As a mobile platform HARRI enables targeted engagement in the most deprived and hard to reach areas, in a format which is accessible and attractive to the public.

“The interior of the vehicle has been specially designed to allow for versatility in approach.

“To date HARRI has been used to offer psychological self-help guidance, blood pressure checks and carbon monoxide breath readings.”

The HARRI bus has achieved:

  • 90 Making Every Contact Count (MECC) conversations
  • 637 Blood pressure checks
  • More than 750 people signposted to services or support groups
  • 200 walking sticks repaired

By putting our service user at the heart of what we do, it enables us to help make a real, tangible difference to their lives.

Paul Jebb, LCSft’s Associate Chief Nurse, Patient Experience & Engagement, has a passion and a drive to achieve this.

Paul explained: “Understanding what matters to people is of paramount importance to ensure health services are person centred.

“Having HARRI as a mobile engagement tool supports the Trust in understanding what matters to people within their local communities, which gives rich feedback to community groups who work in partnership with us.”