Coaching for HealthOver the last ten years of delivering Coaching for Health, we have been capturing data from participants to demonstrate the impact of the training, and to ensure ongoing improvement. Our programme aims to develop participants’ awareness and capability when using their conversational skills with patients and clients. Having more effective conversations leads to developing openness, trust, understanding, motivation and confidence on the part of the patient or client with the following intended outcomes:
- Increased levels of self-efficacy amongst patients
- Higher rates of concordance with co-created management plans
- Better health outcomes
- Reduction in frequency of unnecessary appointments in primary and secondary care
- Higher patient satisfaction in clinical settings
- Enhanced health professional satisfaction due to more ‘meaningful conversations’ and a more appropriate distribution of responsibility
98% of attendees would recommend the course to a colleague (post-training survey)
Feedback from participants:
“Excellent course, the trainers are well aware of the reality so they have a dynamic and practical approach which is highly appreciated. They work with compassion, humbleness and active listening and are totally person-centred, which is the key to a successful practice” – Homeless Health Worker
“I thought the training was facilitated brilliantly and this helped with my concentration, especially as it was all online. The use of tech was smooth and skilled and Doug and Nick’s ability to seamlessly interchange from lead and co lead was very effective.” – Psychological Therapist
“I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. Facilitators were engaging, enthusiastic and able to link to real life examples.” – Wellness & Behaviour Change Coach
“Extremely well facilitated with good materials for future use. Doug and Nick were really able to adapt the course to suit the needs of our service which are very specific and helped me to see how I can change not only my personal interactions with service users, but our service model as a whole” – Occupational Therapist
“Excellent course and fantastically delivered by experienced and knowledgeable tutors who have brilliant skills in delivery. Well done and thank you. This has been extremely useful and transformed encounters.” – GP
“I thought this was some of the most useful training I’ve been on for years. The two weeks in between sessions was the perfect amount of time to practice the skills. The trainers were excellent, in terms of their presentation style, knowledge and general encouragement […] I’ve already started applying what I have learned to my practice and I think it is going to have a huge difference to the way I have conversations and support families who can be difficult to otherwise engage, and also colleagues. Thank you both.” – Speech and Language Therapist
Case studies from participants:
“The client lived with her husband. She had severe COPD, depression, arthritis […] she had no social life, felt lonely, isolated and had low quality of life. Her husband was the main carer and she felt guilty he needed to provide personal care. I fostered and developed a relationship with the client who had previously declined IAPT as had experienced failure, but through coaching was able to support her to recognise the need to try again and eventually I was able to refer her to IAPT for LTC. Furthermore she then accepted help to link with other supportive mechanisms. [She said] “You’ve given me hope which was missing. You have your finger on the pulse. I am so grateful.””- Social Prescriber/Wellbeing Coordinator
“I have a patient with Functional Neurological Disorder who kept bringing us barrier after barrier in our sessions. I used T-GROW to help him be more specific with his goals, and to think of options as well as barriers. Then I used the challenge sandwich when he still was providing barriers instead of options. By the end of the session we had identified a next step forwards, and he also expressed that he felt I was very empathetic (which was encouraging given I’d given him a fairly blunt challenge!). I felt positive and confident in my work, and he felt well supported and able to take a step forward.” – Speech and Language Therapist
“I used coaching skills with a client who was a fellow healthcare professional experiencing post-covid fatigue and burnout. We discussed how their current role was impacting their health and I used TGROW to elicit solutions and next steps to addressing the problem. I think this had a really positive impact on this client as they came to their own conclusions and plans and I think they felt empowered to begin the next steps. I found this a very refreshing technique as I felt this was not a paternalistic dynamic, it was client led and actually did not have to use much text book expertise. I left the conversation feeling like there was a satisfying conclusion to the conversation.” – Clinical Fellow
“I received a referral for a homeless gentleman who did not have food and wanted to find a place to live and a job. There were lots of issues to unpick including mental health and substance abuse as well as previous criminal offences resulting in a prison sentence. Through coaching and enabling my Client to talk through tasks that he could complete independently with the right assistive technology (Laptop) and a fresh mindset my Client was able to conduct his own research and is now housed and running his own Carpentry business! My Client gave feedback explaining that it made such a difference having someone believe in him and not tell him what to do. He felt empowered and respected and able to achieve his goals slowly but with real confidence. The impact is immense and every conversation I have I now approach very differently since attending the course.” – Social Prescribing Link Worker
“A lady in her 70s recently widowed within past 1.5 yrs. Weaning off diazepam. Although patient is motivated to come off entirely and has been making steady but slow progress. At first conversation with patient had been tearful (hers rather than mine) and so felt I had to invest in lots of reassurance and listening to why her week had been challenging. I realised although helpful to the patient to offload it probably wasn’t going to change the outcome of the consultation /medication plan and so we discussed she would naturally have good and bad days, and that she had the power to change how she managed these, i.e. reaching out for support from friends/family, exercise etc. Consultations are now much shorter and she is down to minimal dose each week. […] she seems stronger within herself to continue to taper even if she has had a bad week. […] I learnt not to carry her emotion for her and to give that task back to her knowing and encouraging her that she had the tools already to do this. I don’t dread that her consultations will be long anymore and so feel less tired and ‘spent’ after them to the point where I’m really quite proud of her: she’s done so well!” – Physician Associate
“Man phoned in crisis because partner pregnant and he was worried about his mental health – thought he was abnormal for not being excited but instead very scared. Explored his feelings and what he wanted from consultation and for his mental health. He was able to formulate what he felt ‘healthy’ looked like and how this was much more about giving himself space to feel and be real in a safe space rather than bury and pretend. He faced his fears and in so doing found it wasn’t as scary as he expected. Also allowed him to face things from his past and have more compassion on the part of himself that was scared of fatherhood. This then allowed the other bit of him that was excited to be expressed without feeling it was pretence. By the end of 2 sessions he was less anxious, sleeping better and able to talk to his partner with less shame and more truth. These were his goals. I was amazed that it only took two sessions for him to feel so much better but I think it was asking questions that allowed him to frame what he felt was a healthy way of being and then helping him see he wasn’t so far from that state as he first thought.” – GP
“10 year old child with handwriting difficulties. By applying coaching he was able to correct his errors while handwriting and as a result his handwriting and participation in class improved. This was also a powerful experience for me and consolidates the knowledge that coaching can be useful to many different ranges of people and ages” – Community Children Occupational Therapist
Evaluation charts
The following charts represent the combined evaluation results from the last ten years of course delivery. We use a replicable system of three questionnaires: pre-training, post-training and 2-3 months follow-up. This is to ensure data is comparable across health coaching programmes and was designed by the Tavistock Institute.
The following chart demonstrates the wide variety of specialisms among our course participants.
