Agenda item

Paper attached from Adult Social Care to inform the ongoing review into: ‘Access to Health Services in Southwark’. 

9.1  Sarah McClinton; Director of Adult Social Care and Steve Davidson; SLaM Service Director - Mood Anxiety and Personality Clinical Academic Group, introduced the paper circulated.

9.2  A member asked if a more joined up approach to social care means doing more preventative work and officers agreed it did, commenting that there was commissioning of the community and voluntary sector and of Telecare; simple aids can make a big difference. The Director of Adult Social care said that Southwark are making progress with older people; the figures attest to this.

9.3  The Director of Social Care was asked about information and making every contact count, and she responded that the council have launched the single help line and the ‘my support choices’ website portal. There are specialist services tackling social isolation but other services  will also signpost. There is also a network commissioned by Age Concern that means that if one service visits an older person then there will be further contact and signposting. The member asked about visits to one stop shops or libraries and the Director of Adult Social Care said that the library staff have been trained in the ‘my support choices’ website. The chair requested more information on statistics on accessing the website and other places.

9.4  A member queried the statistic in paragraph 7 of the report which referred to older people’s attendance at A & E and emergency admissions and asked officers to explain a little more. They responded that this is a comparison snap shot comparing data from October – December which shows a reduction across two different years. The member commented that the data was not that in depth.

9.5  Another member commented that the last paragraph of the report points to a lack of significant breaches on Mental Health assessments; however the report from Public Health shows an increase in mental health co-morbidities. The Director of Adult Social Care responded that this is not quite the same cohort - one is looking at access to mental health services that is high need and which crosses a threshold. SlaM Service Director added that there has been an increase in people presenting with mental health conditions, and often this is amongst people with co-morbidities who are finding it harder to cope and so getting mentally distressed. He said that there is a targeting of community services to try and meet this need better. The Director of Adult Social Care agreed that there was more that could be done and referred to the re-enablement service The Slam Medical Director said that the service is finding that increased social difficulties are prompting more visits to A & E. He agreed the Re-enablement service is for crucial in providing community and social support to try and reduce or prevent this.

9.6  A member asked how good the work with the voluntary sector is and the Director of Adult Social Care explained that there is a commissioning, with contract monitoring, and Adult Social care have also set up an innovation fund. The member went on to ask if the council look at outcome targets, for example A & E attendance. The Director of Adult Social Care said that the council does not use that as an outcome measure, as it is not the primary purpose - although the acute services do commission the Red Cross.

RESOLVED

More information will be supplied on the number of older people who have been accessing information at One Stop Shops, Libraries, via the ‘single helpline’ and through the website portal ‘My Support’.