FRIDAY, 21 NOVEMBER, 2014

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Your Community, Your Voice, Your Future – Improving older people’s mental health services in Northwest Perthshire

Residents in Northwest Perthshire are being encouraged to get involved in discussions to help shape the future of older people’s mental health services in the area.

An information drop-in cafe will take place at the Atholl Centre in Pitlochry on Saturday, 29 November from 10am to 12noon.

Members of the local community are invited to come along to the drop-in event to discuss the development of older people’s mental health services in North West Perthshire to meet the current and future needs of the local population.

Participants will hear that older people in the communities of North West Highland Perthshire are at the forefront of a new way of receiving mental health services, including dementia services and support, not directly in their own homes and in their neighbourhoods.

Healthcare professionals are working in partnership with patients and their families, Perth & Kinross Council colleagues and partners from the voluntary and third sectors, such as Alzheimer Scotland, to test the delivery of a more localised service for those living with dementia.

This has meant that over the last few months staff from the Atholl Unit Team have had the opportunity to work with this broader community-based team to develop new ways of working by offering and delivering mental health services, including dementia care, for older people living at home in and around the Pitlochry and Highland Perthshire community.

This new community-based model of care, which has been successfully established in the Strathmore community, will provide an alternative to the more traditional hospital-based dementia assessment model.

It is now being rolled out in North West Highland Perthshire and its surrounding areas is an extension of the work of the Older People’s Community Mental Health Team which is already well established in the area.

The biggest change to the way in which the team will now deliver dementia services is that they have moved away from the hospital-based model, which offered a limited service to very few individuals living with dementia in their locality. The team is now able to deliver services for many more dementia patients and their carers both in their own homes and by supporting people to access a broader range of local community services.

Evelyn Devine, Interim Lead Officer for Perth & Kinross Community Health Partnership, said, “We hope that many people from the local community can come along to the information drop-in cafe event on Saturday 29 November at the Atholl Centre.

“The involvement of those living in North West Perthshire in helping to enhance local models of care is vital.

“We want to ensure that local health services respond to the needs of the area so we are keen for members of the public to get involved and feedback their views, opinions and ideas for health care in their own communities.”

The work is an example of how health and social care services are gearing up for integration.

NHS Tayside and Perth & Kinross Council will join up in a new way to deliver adult health and social care services. This new way of working will improve the quality and consistency of services for patients, service users, carers, families and communities and will deliver services that meet the needs of the increasing number of people with longer-term and often complex needs.

Health and social care integration will ensure that those individuals with long-term conditions and disabilities will get the joined-up and seamless support and care that they need to live safely and independently in their own homes for as long as possible.

Tea and coffee will be provided at the information drop-in cafe event. For further information or if you require assistance with travel, please contact Cathy Walsh on 01796 474828 or email cathy.walsh@nhs.net

Contact:

Debbie Huband

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740134

Notes to Editors:

Health and Social Care Integration in Perth and Kinross

• Integration of adult health and social care is part of the Scottish Government’s programme of reform to improve outcomes for adults who use health and social care services. The aim is to make sure that services are tailored to meet the particular needs of individual local communities.

• The Scottish Government has said that current Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) will be replaced by new Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). These will be jointly run by the NHS and Local Authority in each area. This follows the passing of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act in the Scottish Parliament in 2014.

• In Perth and Kinross a Pathfinder Board has been set up to lead this process and oversee the transition to integrated services. A new legal entity called the Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership will be set up, with responsibility for delivering local services that meet local and national outcomes.

• The new Partnership will have executive powers and will use a single budget to deliver all health and social care services. All staff will continue to be employed by their existing employer, be it Perth & Kinross Council or NHS Tayside.