The Life Rooms, the award-winning social prescribing service for local communities, is reopening its doors to service users on 4 October following 12 months of online sessions throughout the pandemic.

Following the introduction of lockdown restrictions, the Life Rooms developed their service model to ensure service users, carers and the local community could access online courses and advice digitally, but is now reverting to pre-COVID-19 methods of working.

The Life Rooms, run by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, will offer both bookable and drop-in pathways advisor appointments, as well as face to face learning sessions. Zoom learning sessions will be ongoing and pathways advice and support remains accessible over the phone, allowing The Life Rooms to maintain its wide audience. Social distancing will be maintained on all sites.

Michael Crilly, Mersey Care’s Director of Social Inclusion and Participation, said: “The Life Rooms fully functioning digital environment allowed service users to access all resources during difficult times.

“Now it’s time to reopen doors and reintroduce face to face support. I’m delighted to welcome back familiar and new faces and congratulate the Life Rooms teams for their ongoing hard work and dedication.”

The Life Rooms move to digital learning and online support during the pandemic proved to be a huge success. In the last 12 months they have:

• Delivered 796 Zoom learning sessions to 4354 contacts
• Launched their own online platform, Learnworlds, allowing users to access pre-recorded sessions. The platform holds just short of 50 available courses and has received 1191 enrolments since it’s launch.
• Made 7437 telephone support calls via their Pathways Advisory Service which resulted in 6185 social prescriptions during this time.

The success of Life Rooms’ reaction to closing their doors during the pandemic resulted in them winning the Excellence in Mental Health Care Award at the NHS Parliamentary Awards in London earlier this year.