Organisation Profile
Wellbeing Works is a mental health charity based in Dundee. Wellbeing Works promotes better wellbeing for those who face mental health challenges: building confidence, learning new skills, connecting with others and having a positive impact on our community.
Wellbeing Works is the new brand for what was Dundee Association for Mental Health and has been providing support and services for the people of Dundee for more than 50 years.
Challenges
One of the key challenges for Wellbeing Works was needing to adapt to a rapid change in their services due to COVID-19 restrictions. As an organisation that provided lots of face-to-face support, this was a major change to the way they operated. They needed handsets for their support workers very quickly, so they could continue to carry out their work with service users remotely. Shona Ford, Wellbeing Works Administrator said:
“We have a team of support workers, peer support workers and various projects that operate in the community. What has happened as a result of Covid is that we needed to provide remote telephone support and we needed to do that quickly, that’s why we reached out to GoodCall.”
The organisation initially went out to purchase pay-as-you-go phones from a local shop as a temporary solution. However, they soon realised this would not be cost-effective the longer that restrictions on their service carried on:
“Moving from an office-based operation to all of our staff working from – we needed to provide our support workers with a mobile service that was reliable and easy for us to administer. I think like many other organisations at the start of lockdown, we didn’t anticipate just how long this would last and how dramatically our service would change. We went out and initially got pay as you go phones, but we realised quite quickly that this was not going to be a long-term solution for us, and we needed something more robust going forward.”
The GoodCall Solution
GoodCall set up 4 new lines for Wellbeing Works on a plan that meets their needs. They previously did not have a unified solution with a few handsets that could be used on the go. The GoodCall solution means that all their support staff team now have their own phones. Shiona said:
“We didn’t have an existing mobile phone set up, only one or two phones that staff would use on the go, but now all our support staff have their own phones. The support staff are the predominant users of our lines – they work with a case load and are contacting each person once a week over the phone, sometimes using video conferencing as well.”
Impact
The positive impact of GoodCall’s technology on the organisation means that services users can have a direct line of communication with their support worker. It has also allowed the team to explore new ways of working and connecting with their beneficiaries, through video call, meaning services are even more accessible. Shiona said:
“Elaine very quickly and efficiently found us a great deal and in under a week we were set up with all our new phones. It was really quick and efficient. We were not very dependent on technology in our former working environment, but because of Covid we now feel we are very reliant on a good phone system to keep in touch with each other. Things like Zoom calls have been great because it means people can access our services in as many different ways as possible.”
Recommendation
“We would absolutely recommend GoodCall to other third sector organisations in Dundee. When I found out about GoodCall I was more than happy to work with a local social enterprise. The real impact for our service users is that it means they can stay directly in touch with their support worker, rather than having to phone into the office. It means they have a direct line if they need it.”
Shiona Ford, Wellbeing Works Administrator
About GoodCall:
GoodCall are digital changemakers who bring third sector knowledge and experience, together with innovative experts in mobile communications. As a social enterprise, we are passionate about reducing the digital inequality of the third sector. To do this we provide affordable and accessible mobiles, tablets, and data exclusively for charities, social enterprises, and other community groups.
To contact us, please enquire here: https://goodcall.org.uk/contact/
