Publish date: 16 September 2019
Outreach ‘contacts’ are aimed at capturing overall activity by Outreach staff.Outreach contacts are an internal number aimed at capturing overall activity by outreach staff.
To be recorded as a contact the interaction has to be substantial and involve as a minimum an attempt to ascertain what needs a person has, offer advice and/or tell them about the services available.
The balance of outreach contacts varies very considerably from month to month. We do not usually break them down over time for that reason but look at them month by month.
Over a six month period just over a third of activity was clinical contacts including case management and arts therapy.
The number of contacts at events varies greatly from month to month depending on what is happening in the community, with event contacts increasing for instance during carnival and for the anniversary.
Event contacts varied from month to month between 5% of total activity and more than half. Over a six month period this made up a fifth of contacts.
The remainder is screening activity including street screening. The data is for contacts, not individuals, so if someone is seen on four occasions in a month that is 4 contacts. It is a measure of activity. That is different from, say, cumulative screening numbers, which are individuals. So each screening number is a different person.