Health and social care Early Intervention Service newsletter

October 2012 Issue 8

Hello and welcome back to the latest newsletter on the health and social care Early Intervention Service (EIS) in Cornwall.
The project is a partnership between Cornwall Councils Adult Care and Support, Peninsula Community Health (formerly Community Health Services), the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

The new service has launched!

The EIS has gone live from 17 September. The process of developing this service has been extremely challenging for everyone concerned and there will continue to be more developments, such as refining the operating processes and systems, developing working knowledge of systems and getting to know new colleagues. This settling-in period will continue in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks must go to the staff from all the teams and organisations involved for their excellent work and resilience in bringing us to this point.

The new EIS in detail

Staff from the following teams will join together to form the new, streamlined EIS: Rapid Assessment Team (a combination of ACS and PCH staff) Community Assessment Team (PCH staff) Short-Term Team (ACS staff) Hospital discharge teams in acute and community hospitals (combination of ACS and PCH staff) Operational support staff (combination of ACS and PCH staff) The teams will be operating from 8.30am to 6.30pm, seven days a week.

Key skills
Skills within the teams include nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, and Adult Care and Support assessing and support staff. The main provider of social support and reablement will be STEPs (Short-Term Enablement and Planning Service), in addition to commissioning external agencies to carry out care as required. We aim to have these skills available on a dayto-day basis, but until the recruitment process has taken place, in some areas this may not be possible. Team managers will regularly update local referrers to make sure they are aware of skills available and any changes. We will work collaboratively with existing health and social care, voluntary and independent sector teams.

Six areas showing Early Intervention Services Latest news from around the teams n Cornwall
Six areas showing Early Intervention Services in Cornwall

EIS Venues

North Cornwall EIS to be based in Bodmin Kerrier EIS team venues moves into Dolcoath Council office
The EIS Kerrier team moved in to their new home at Dolcoath avenue in Camborne on Friday 31 August. Many thanks to all those involved and the EIS team for all its hard work in making the transition as smooth as possible. Telephone numbers have been transferred from the Frank Johns Centre, Hayle, for referrals into the Rapid Assessment Team until the 16 September and will remain the same number for referrals into the EIS. Staff are also benefitting from new IT equipment, which is being issued as part of Adult Care and Supports modern working program. The North Cornwall EIS is located at Harleigh road in Bodmin. We now have a joint team of health and social care workers who will be developing a new way of working for the area. This will be supported by the wider multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDT). The team are working towards one MDT for North Cornwall.

Penwith temporary arrangements

Penwith EIS will be a virtual team for a few weeks, with staff from Penwith Rapid Assessment Team continuing to work from Dolcoath Road in Kerrier temporarily, until the offices in Roscadghill Parc are organised hopefully by November. The EIS service will be provided regardless of where the staff are based.

Caradon EIS teams up with Plymouth University

Caradons EIS team is working with Plymouth University who have secured funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to carry out a three-year project focusing on the needs of the patient and carer in relation to the integration and continuity of primary care. The university has chosen Cornwall as one of five models they will be looking at in the UK, comparing research with other European countries. For regular updates watch this space; the project ends in 2014 with a final report.

Restormel
Restormel team had a positive first meeting. They will be based in St Austell Hospital, but will continue to use Penwinnick House as an additional space.

Carrick
The Short-Term Team are joining the RATs and STEPs teams, who currently occupy the Tresillian building at Old County Hall. The teams have had an opportunity to try out new IT equipment that will be issued to them as part of the modern working program.

Cornwalls EIS venues

Caradon Carrick

Luxstowe House Liskeard PL14 3DZ

Old County Hall Truro TR1 3HA

North Cornwall

Kerrier

Harleigh Road Bodmin PL31 1AH

Dolcoath Council Offices Camborne TR14 8SX

Restormel

Penwith

St Austell Community Hospital St Austell PL26 6AD

Roscadghill Parc Penzance TR18 3QQ

Hubs in action what can the public expect?

Here are some of the benefits we expect for people: Because the service is customer-focused, staff from health, social care and the voluntary and community sector will work with people to make sure they receive the right services and support at the right time and in the right place. Referrers, such as GPs, will be able to refer direct to their local EIS. The benefit is that they will only have to make one contact. All referrals will be triaged by the multi-disciplinary team. The co-ordinating staff will collate all the relevant details regarding the individual and allocate a keyworker. The keyworker will then carry out a multi-disciplinary assessment to determine what services are required and ensure a support plan is put in place.

The Early Intervention Service will allow us to make better decisions about how to deliver the most appropriate care for people, reducing the risk of errors in communication between different professionals. By delivering the right help and service as soon as possible, we can prevent things from getting worse unnecessarily. People can get the same service no matter which professional they first speak to or where they live.

A more co-ordinated approach is taken with only one assessment being carried out and an appropriate support plan put in place.

Get in touch
For more information, visit: www.cornwall.gov.uk/earlyintervention. You can fill out an online contact form, if you have any queries.

Photograph iStockphoto.com/Track5

More information: www.cornwall.gov.uk/earlyintervention