Enhancing the implementation of the Making Every Contact Count brief behavioural intervention programme in Ireland: protocol for the Making MECC Work research programme

Abstract

Background: Brief behavioural interventions offered by healthcare professionals to target health behavioural risk factors (e.g. physical activity, diet, smoking and drug and alcohol use) can positively impact patient health outcomes. The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Programme supports healthcare professionals to offer patients brief opportunistic behavioural interventions during routine consultations. The potential for MECC to impact public health depends on its uptake and implementation. Aim: This protocol outlines the ‘Making MECC Work’ research programme, a HSE/Health Behaviour Change Research Group collaboration to develop an implementation strategy to optimise uptake of MECC in Ireland. The programme will answer three research questions: (1) What determines delivery of MECC brief interventions by healthcare professionals at individual and organisational levels? (2) What are patient attitudes towards, and experiences of, receiving MECC interventions from healthcare professionals? (3) What evidence-informed implementation strategy options can be consensually developed with key stakeholders to optimise MECC implementation? Methods: In Work Package 1, we will examine determinants of MECC delivery by healthcare professionals using a multi-methods approach, including: (WP1.1) a national survey of healthcare professionals who have participated in MECC eLearning training and (WP1.2) a qualitative interview study with relevant healthcare professionals and HSE staff. In Work Package 2, we will examine patient attitudes towards, and experiences of, MECC using qualitative interviews. Work Package 3 will combine findings from Work Packages 1 and 2 using the Behaviour Change Wheel to identify and develop testable implementation strategy options (WP 3.1). Strategies will be refined and prioritised using a key stakeholder consensus process to develop a collaborative implementation blueprint to optimise and scale-up MECC (WP3.2). Discussion: Research programme outputs are expected to positively support the integration of MECC brief behaviour change interventions into the Irish healthcare system and inform the scale-up of behaviour change interventions internationally.

Understanding the implementation of ‘Making Every Contact Count’ (MECC) delivered by healthcare professionals in a mental health hospital: protocol for a pragmatic formative process evaluation

“…To provide further evidence on the patient perspective of receiving opportunistic behaviour change interventions (Keyworth et al, 2020 ) and compare our findings with national and international studies collecting data to identify factors determining delivery of MECC from perspectives of HCPs and service users (Meade et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The current study addresses the following research needs: To understand barriers and facilitators beyond traditional implementation contexts, such as delivering MECC in a mental health setting (Harrison et al, 2022 ); To explore the feasibility of delivering MECC with client groups who may be facing an immediate crisis, or a complex or progressive diagnosis such a SMI (Deenik et al, 2019 ; Harrison et al, 2022 ); To understand whether tailored support offered through MECC is viewed favourably by services users and HCPs (Harrison et al, 2022 ; Lee et al, 2022 ); To contribute to the development of robust monitoring tools that facilitate measurement and attribution of behaviour change outcomes for MECC (Harrison et al, 2022 ); To provide further evidence on the patient perspective of receiving opportunistic behaviour change interventions (Keyworth et al, 2020 ) and compare our findings with national and international studies collecting data to identify factors determining delivery of MECC from perspectives of HCPs and service users (Meade et al, 2022 ). …”

Exploring barriers and enablers to the delivery of Making Every Contact Count brief behavioural interventions in Ireland: A cross‐sectional survey study

“…We report our study according to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines (von Elm et al, 2007). All study materials and data are available at the ‘Making MECC Work’ Open Science Framework page (Meade et al, 2022b) https://osf.io/9a5vj/?view_only%3D50695e0be81e460e8de1c04dbd3c83e1.…”

“…Details of sample size assumptions and sample size calculations have been previously published (Meade et al, 2022a). All health care professionals who completed the online MECC eLearning training programme from June 2018–March 2021 ( n = 4050) were invited to take part in the online survey via an e‐mail invitation from the Health Service Executive MECC team on the 12th of April 2021.…”

“…This study is part of the pre‐registered ‘Making MECC Work’ research programme (Meade et al, 2022a), which aims to develop a collaborative implementation strategy to optimize MECC delivery in Ireland. The aim of the present study was to identify and quantify modifiable individual‐level and organizational‐level barriers and enablers to the implementation of MECC in routine health care to identify target determinants for future interventions to enhance MECC delivery.…”