CHAIN: Mutual Support Network for Health & Social Care Professionals

1. C ONTACT, H ELP, A DVICE and I NFORMATION N ETWORK mutual support network for health & social care professionals

2. What CHAIN offers? CHAINs PURPOSE IS TO HELP YOU REACH OTHER PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE NOT IN YOUR NORMAL CIRCLE OF CONTACTS

3. CHAIN membership by Profession

4. CHAIN membership - by main interest

5. So what is CHAIN & where did it come from? u Origins in the UK NHS Research & Devt. Programme u A 14 year old social network for mutual support u Established to link people across health & social care family u multi-professional, and cross-organisational u Free & simple to use u Resourced by 8 stakeholders, including DoH & Macmillan Cancer Support

6. Main benefits of membership u Searchable online directory: Contact other members directly u Targeted information from CHAIN: Events, conferences, resources, funding opportunities u Publicise information Resources, events u Requests for information from other members: Asking for advice, seeking collaborators

7. u Members join voluntarily u Motivated & responsive to messages u A rich source of contacts to tap into u Members like to broadcast; appreciate targeted info u Efficient onward dissemination u Members can use the network in many different ways. Why CHAIN works

8. u I would say the advantages of being part of CHAIN are: you receive information that may not reach you by any other source, and you only receive information or requests targeted to your areas of interest to get help from fellow professionals, e.g. I used it to ask if anyone knew of a cost benefit analysis of anticipatory prescribing for palliative care drugs at end of life... Jane Andrew Practice Educator/Specialist Palliative Care Royal Victoria Hospital, Dundee What do members say

9. u What a diverse group we are: professionals (from) trusts and educational institutions all accessing information provided by CHAIN; this is probably unique an excellent example of remote/IT- friendly, multi-professional team working and sharing of best practice. Wendy White Assistant Director HR East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust What do members say

10. What do members say u I used CHAIN recently to request feedback on practice guideline documents that I had developed as part of my PhD project on bereavement care for older people. I received twelve responses from people in a range of roles and with an interest in bereavement and bereavement care. The responses I received to my request via CHAIN were very helpful. Audrey Stephen CSO Research Training Fellow The Robert Gordon University

11. CHAIN today... u Unique, evaluated, trusted, used & appreciated u Positive external evaluations: University of London, 2004, BMJ Tribal, 2006 Manchester Business School, 2008 u 12,000+ members in total u An average of 100 new joiners each month u UK-wide, plus Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy and 40 other countries Worldwide

12. CHAIN stakeholders

13. Join us today Web: http://chain.ulcc.ac.uk/chain/index.html E-mail: enquiries@chain-network.org.uk Follow CHAIN updates on: CHAIN provides an opportunity to find out what is happening within health & social care regionally and nationally, a source of e-networking, exchange of ideas, and not having to re-invent the wheel