Home treatment boost for the elderly in East Kilbride pilot

A pilot project geared to supporting older people in the community has made marked progress in its first year.
The Integrated Community Support Team (ICST) aims to prevent unnecessary hospital or care home admissions and reduce the length of stay in hospital.

Nine out of every 10 people supported by the ICST, which operates in East Kilbride and Strathaven, have been able to remain in their own home.Homee

The ICST is a community team of social and health care professionals who combine expertise to tailor and coordinate support to individual need, particularly of older people.

The initiative has been formed through the nationwide, multi-agency strategy, Reshaping Care for Older People (RCOP).

Research shows most older adults would prefer to remain in their own homes, with support, if they are unable to look after themselves.

RCOP is looking at ways to support care for the growing numbers of people aged 65 years and over by providing more care at home, in homely settings and in the community.

NHS Lanarkshire’s Morag Hearty, project manager for the ICST, explained how partnership working has been vital to the team’s success so far.

She said: “The ICST has brought together nurses, physiotherapists and rehabilitation staff from NHS Lanarkshire with social workers, home-care workers and occupational therapists from South Lanarkshire Council.

“Medical care is provided by the person’s own GP who links, when needed, with hospital consultants. Members of the team are working together to devise and implement the best possible course of support for the person and their carer.”

As well as palliative care, the ICST also offers round-the-clock support to people who have just been discharged from hospital, helping them regain independence to prevent readmission.

In the first year of ICST, 921 people were referred. Of the elderly patients seen by ICST, 89.7 per cent of them – many with complex care needs – were able to remain in their own home within 30 days of referral.

When a referral is made, the team of professionals coordinate with each other to ensure the patient, carer or person’s GP doesn’t need to make multiple telephone calls.

In a recent case, an older man was referred to the ICST by his GP after injuring his back, which had left him confined to his bed. His wife was in danger of hurting herself lifting him, so both faced possible hospital admission.

Within an hour of referral, care staff had visited to help with personal needs. The following morning, a physiotherapist and occupational therapist arrived to provide equipment and a rehabilitation programme.

Regular visits from team members ensured he was soon able to manage his own personal care without home-care workers. He made a full recovery and avoided hospital.

Approximately 30 full-time health workers are based at two sites in East Kilbride: Hunter and Greenhills Health centres, with additional staff at Strathaven.

They are closely linked to all social work resources, including home-care work, in their area, with key staff from ICST regularly attending meetings at Hairmyres hospital to help fine-tune treatment and discharge plans.

Explaining the importance of coordination, Morag said: “The physiotherapists, for example, don’t turn up to a home appointment to find a nurse there doing a dressing or a home-care worker bathing the person. Everyone knows when and what everyone else is doing.”

Harry Stevenson, South Lanarkshire Council’s Executive Director of Social Work Resources said: “The success of ICST so far isn’t the end point. It’s the very start of a journey. We are determined to keep evolving and improving on the good work that’s already underway.”