CATCH - Common Approach To Children's Health

Why should clinicians recommend CATCH to their patients?

The main benefits of CATCH from a health professional's point of view are:

Raise confidence in self-care
Parents and carers are more confident to provide self-care for their children

Supply families with trusted health advice
A common approach to children's health is promoted, in that parents, grandparents, carers and health professionals are all being provided with the same, clinically-sound information which is up-to-date and approved by doctors in the local area

Reduce unnecessary hospital visits
Ultimately, pressure on local NHS services is reduced and unnecessary A&E attendances are reduced

Location specific information
With local support services, including charities, Children's Centres, and regional NHS campaigns, CATCH helps provide tailored guidance that reflects local support networks and resources

Culturally sensitive content
CATCH supports multilingual content and cultural customisation, providing more inclusive and accessible health information that respects diverse backgrounds

CATCH originated from the Cheshire East Council's Annual Report of the Director of Public Health, 2013/14, which highlighted a significant issue: large numbers of young children were being taken to A&E and sent home without medical treatment. This raised concerns that some parents might lack the confidence and knowledge for appropriate self-care, leading Public Health Cheshire East, NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, and NHS South Cheshire CCG to jointly commission the CATCH app.

In 2022, Damibu secured SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) funding to explore how customised content with cultural context could help reduce maternal health inequalities. Phase 1 of the SBRI demonstrated that specificity and an awareness of an app user's needs can reassure users about content accuracy and reduce the risk of seeking unreliable alternative sources. The research found that customisations primarily provide additional context without necessarily changing the clinical content.

Following the success of Phase 1, Damibu won funding for Phase 2 of the SBRI. To support these cultural customisations and improve content management, the CATCH app content database was migrated to Damibu Feeds, the company's content management system (CMS). This move enables more flexible and contextually relevant health information delivery.

To find out more about the work Damibu is doing with SmartContext and customisations, visit our SmartContext website.