This week we’re continuing with our series of Having An Impact posts, giving an insight into how our different services are making a difference – in the words of the people using them.
Having an impact every day: Pregnancy Outreach Workers
Having an impact every day: Health Trainers
This week: the Lighten Up call centre
As Lighten Up staff member Liz Barber explained last week: “Our job is to take referrals and then contact the person wanting help with losing weight. We then help them choose a suitable provider, make sure they know when and where the meeting is, and send them all the info they need. After the first week we ring them to make sure all’s OK and then we carry on phoning them at regular intervals to check on their progress.”
The Lighten Up call centre doesn’t deliver the weight loss sessions; these are done by a number of providers. In fact, the call centre staff rarely meet the people they support, as their job is done via the telephone. What the call centre does is to make sure the process works and that the person using the service gets as much out of it as possible.
As Lisa Cruice, the team’s manager says: “We like to call what we do ‘wrap-around support.’ Our focus is to keep each person on track – so if there are problems, we sort them out, and if the person is struggling with motivation, we give them encouragement.”
So, as you’ll see, the mixture of attending the weight loss sessions and receiving regular calls from the Lighten Up call centre work hand in hand to provide a complete service.
Here’s a selection of the responses taken directly from the Podnosh Impact Assessment App, in the last ten days. As ever, the question is “how have we helped you today?”
Jane gave a happiness rating of 100% and said:
It’s nice someone is thinking about you.
Graham told us that Lighten Up gave him the kickstart he needed:
I am now into the swing of things with Slimming World and finding Slimming World more helpful. But don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t for you in the first place I wouldn’t have had the incentive to do it anyway.
Joyce, who’s retired, wants to lose weight to help with her overall health:
Now I know that I am being sent my referral voucher and that I can start on Thursday. It’s much better than just being sent somewhere by your GP. It is good there is a freephone number to call and a team to support you.
Michelle has struggled with her weight for a while but is now with Rosemary Conley. We can see from the app that she benefits from chatting with the Lighten Up staff about her achievements during every call. This week, she said:
The call has helped me feel good about losing a stone.
Vanessa chose to take up the Health Trainers service, but she still gets support from Lighten Up:
It’s nice for you guys to keep in contact to see how I’m getting on and its nice to know you are interested how my weight loss is going.
John used the call to psyche himself up for a challenge that evening:
I’ve got a office do tonight at a chinese restaurant so I have to measure my portions. Being on a flexible plan leaves me 49 “floating points” a week so I can use some of them tonight. Your call will help me prime myself and keep to the challenge.
For Anne, the answer to “how have we helped you today” was simple:
By making me want to go to the class.
Allison is with Weight Watchers but appreciates the extra support:
Well its nice to be remembered and not just given the vouchers and left to get on with it yourself… so yes, its been helpful.
Judy is losing weight so that she can have an operation:
It was absolutely wonderful. Thanks for phoning and checking up on me.
In an average 10 days the team will sign up 212 new clients and they will make 2080 calls. Last year, the team supported their clients to lose a total of 1945 stone. So you see – it works!
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