Posted on: 26 February 2019
More than 100 people working in NHS services, councils and community organisations came together today (Mon 25 February) at a special event in Leeds to discuss working in partnership with people to further improve their health and wellbeing with and for them.
The event, organised by West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, covered the importance of self-management and what this means for people delivering and receiving care. Areas discussed included the support people need to manage their own health, the importance of better conversations with health care workers and the added value of having more control and freedom over personal health budgets to meet their needs.
Jo Webster, Chief Officer, Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group and Partnership CEO Lead for Personalised Care said: ‘Today’s workshop was a great start. Looking at the approaches we need within health services and the community so people fully understand the care, treatment and options available to them has never been more important. We all need to be part of the decision-making process about our own health and how this support should be delivered and by whom. Our next step will be to ask people themselves what they need and their understanding of ‘personalised health’ – only then can we really bridge the knowledge gap and move forward together”.
Another theme of the event was how we can address the varied factors that make a difference to people’s health - a key part of the NHS Long term Plan. As services work to prevent people developing long term health conditions, social prescribing is an area of work that can help people with more general problems which are impacting on their health. Social prescribing works by referring people to link workers, who spend time with them to work out what matters to them, and helps them to link into community organisations that can help them most effectively.
Rob Webster, CEO Lead for the Partnership and CEO for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust said: ‘We are working across West Yorkshire and Harrogate on this issue and have a number of schemes that mean people are actively managing their health, alongside systematic work with organisations and community groups to address the wider issues like poor housing and tackling loneliness. GPs can now refer those who would benefit from working with community groups to go walking or singing or painting - areas which traditionally sit outside a pure medical model. Spending time listening to a person’s goals and working with them to put a plan together to meet these needs is what personalised care is all about. Using a personal budget can also help and around 1,350 people now have this in West Yorkshire and Harrogate’.
The NHS’ long term plan says that within five years over 2.5 million more people will benefit from personalised care, which includes social prescribing, personal health budgets, shared decision making and supported self-management.
Jo went on to say: ‘People themselves often have better solutions to their problems and by connecting people with local groups in their community such as peer and family support, or singing and walking groups and this has a very good impact on their health. This also allows GPs and other health care workers to spend the most time where they can make the biggest difference - which is with people with complex health conditions and those needing a clinical opinion.’
James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care for NHS England said: ‘A one size fits all approach simply cannot meet people’s needs and the growing demand for treatment and care. It is fantastic to see the excellent progress being made in West Yorkshire and Harrogate and the Partnership’s strong emphasis on embedding personalised care throughout its services and support for people. I’m looking forward to see how this important work further develops’.
Across West Yorkshire and Harrogate many of the elements of the personalised care model are already in place or being developed. As part of the NHS England Personalised Care Demonstrator Programme West Yorkshire and Harrogate have been working with support from NHS England to build, develop and spread the model of personalised care delivered locally in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
Notes
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership focuses on the health and care needs of local people across Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. The partnership is made up of a number of organisations who work together to help 2.6 million people in the area including the NHS, councils, Healthwatch, voluntary and community organisations. You can find out more at www.wyhpartnership.co.uk
- Across England, 14 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships are seeing NHS, local government, community organisations and other partners are coming together to simplify health care systems for people.
- Spreading this approach is a key part of the NHS long term plan recently published. West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System is one of the 14 most advanced areas and the social prescribing project is an excellent example of providing better personalised services for people.