Myplace Weeknotes: Week 11
Tags: Nature, Ecotherapy, Mental Health, Design, Service Design

Furthermore and the Myplace team at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, have embarked on a project with support from Catalyst and National Lottery funding.

Myplace is a green prescribing initiative run by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust which aims to increase mental wellbeing through connecting clients to the natural environment in a group setting. It is predicted that due to COVID-19, almost 20% of the population will need either new or additional mental health support making initiatives like Myplace essential in supporting community mental health provision.

The aim of the project is to increase the number of people who move from initial enquiry or referral to actually joining Myplace and experiencing the benefits of connecting with nature via ecotherapy.

To share our journey with others we’ve drafted weeknotes describing and reflecting on our work over the past week:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 11

Rhoda, Myplace project manager shares her reflections after a brief weeknote hiatus:

There’s been a pause since our last weeknote while we have been running our test live, however we are back and starting to pull together insights from the last four weeks of testing.

Things have been moving at pace, alongside Easter holidays and changing of lockdown restrictions. Whilst this has been a busy period for the Myplace team we currently have over 40 people within the test. Feedback so far is still anecdotal but there are already signs of learning.

Many people have for example been clicking on the video links of staff introducing themselves and the site. The information provided in the emails also seems to have provided clarity, with people more confident in taking phone calls from us, and knowing what to expect from the process.

Our Team Support Officer Lisa reflected ‘I think it reduces people’s anxieties and is a good introduction to [the service]. They can see who is going to ring them. I like the structure of the new process, I like the templates, it makes life a lot easier.”

Senior Project Officer, Jenny, commented “I feel like people are a lot more confident when I speak to them. They are much more prepared.”

Feedback from the Myplace team project officers on our prototype test has been positive as prospective participants have been more prepared for each subsequent stage of the customer journey. Image taken pre-Covid-19 and reproduced with permission.

At the same time there have been several instances of people not having email addresses so we have very much needed the text message communication pathway and it will be important that this option remains part of our solution. The solution also needs to be flexible and iterated continuously. The project funded environment means the service is continually evolving and has to be able to respond quickly to changing circumstances.

Whilst the additional monitoring involved in the testing process and changing systems has caused some increase in workload, the impact and potential for the long term looks positive. We’ll be looking closely over the coming week at overall results from the test and dedicating some time with the Furthermore team to building an implementation roadmap based on our learning so far.