We’ve built Referral Tool to provide a quick and easy way to identify the most appropriate local services to refer clients to. We have found that it is common with face to face services that issues that clients want help and support with are beyond the ability of a single agency.
In many cases these issues are so interlinked that it will prove difficult to make any progress in one area without supporting the other. We felt there was a need to be able to identify the full range of relevant local agencies as quickly as possible.
When developing this app we gave a lot of thought to how projects that support Social Prescribing and Community Navigation work. We realised there is a need to quickly record the range of issues a client might have and then to find local organisations that might be able to resolve these issues.
Referral Tool is a quick solution to the problem of directories that get out of date and are often not clear on whether or not referral is appropriate. Referral Tool gets round this problem by using the agencies you work with to decide what issues they can support and manage.
Referral Tool is designed to compliment your data system by providing a simple to use, cloud based, app to carry out a whole person assessment. As clients disclose issues that they would like to resolve, these are marked on a map that covers, personal circumstances, behaviour and clinical needs. The app produces a simple report that lists all relevant agencies, for those issues, and how to contact them. The report can be printed or automatically emailed to the client.
We have created a range of service specific maps so that the potential issues are relevant to the people you work with. If you find that clients are presenting different issues, you can create your own map that suits your needs. You can even add your own issues, and make them available to other agencies.
Referral Tool is designed to be used collaboratively with agencies across an area. This means that agencies can add the other organisations they know about, and highlight the issues that they are best suited to resolve.
Our emphasis has been to create something that is simple and easy to use. It’s designed for use on PCs, tablets or phones and you can complete an assessment in less than a minute.
We have also added the ability to monitor the sort of issues that your clients present. By collating this data together and anonymising it, you can produce powerful information, on a local level, of where the most pressing issues are concentrated.
We provide Referral Tool, as with all our software, free under an Open License. We can also provide hosted solutions for anyone that wants to improve the way they work with partner agencies.
The video below gives you a taste of how easy this is to use.